Celebrating a Birthday Part 4 – The Gifts

This is the fourth and final post about celebrating a birthday…my husband’s.

As I mentioned in previous posts, we have special Birthday Traditions, most of which involve food.  This year even the gifts my husband received were food related.  Here’s how….

It was about a week or so before his birthday and my children and I were discussing what to get Dad for this special occasion.  He had emailed me his “Amazon wish list”  with a very kind note stating that these were mere suggestions and I didn’t need to feel compelled to purchase anything from the list.  I looked over his short list and at the top of the list was shoes.  Yes, shoes!  Being a “Florida Boy” and teenager from the 80’s, he has noticed that “top-siders” have come back in style.  He’s wanted a pair for a while now, but since they are pretty expensive, he just hasn’t wanted to spend the money on them.  I mentioned this list to the children; they were less than thrilled at the idea of getting Dad shoes.  

It was at this point, our middle daughter mentioned that it’s been awhile since we got Dad a “big” gift. She had been to the local home improvement store recently with him to buy boards to break for her upcoming Black Belt Test,  and recalled him “wandering” by the grills and looking at a specific one.  Immediately, our sons piped in that he knew “exactly the one” she was talking about.  He too had been to Lowe’s with Dad recently.  Then I remembered being with him back in the summer when the same thing had happened.  

A grill?  That might be a great idea.  We considered briefly that since it was a big gift we might wait until Christmas, but quickly decided against that since it would (hopefully) be too cold to use it then.

How much was this grill?  Of course, my daughter had remembered.  It was more than we usually spend but through God’s provisions, we had enough.  I had received, in the mail, a $20 off coupon from this store…and still had it.  All the children had recently been given opportunities to earn money….and still had it.  I had a little saved….and still had it!  It was decided, A GRILL FOR DAD’S BIRTHDAY!

The next day, our middle daughter and I went to Lowe’s with cash and coupon in hand to buy this grill.  We just had two more obstacles….how to get it home and where to keep it for a week without him seeing it.  Lowe’s helped us out with BOTH!  They have a “buy it now, pick it up later” policy.  We picked out and purchased it that day and picked it a week later.  They were very helpful in loading it into our van for me as well.  

The children and I were able to unload it and have it sitting in the living room when he got home from work.  He was surprised!  Of course, the first question he asked was, “How did you get that home?”  

Knowing that his current grill needed to be replaced, due to rust he next commented, “I need to get a grill cover to go on that”. We were a step ahead of him. Some very sweet friends, wanting to get get him a gift and also having checked his Amazon list, asked what he would like.  Our ever thoughtful middle daughter recommended a grill cover….so it was just a matter of keeping him away from Lowe’s until they could give it to him. 

As I mentioned, he was a teenager in the 80’s, so that makes him over forty.  As a general rule, when you reach forty, your eyes start to go.  Let’s just say, he hasn’t been an exception to the rule. He did break down and buy reading glasses to wear at home, but when he’s preaching it’s awkward to keep taking them on and off, so he doesn’t use them.  Two of our church families (and close friends) gave him a very thoughtful gift to help with this situation…A Large Print Bible!  It was a little funny, but truly a blessing and very thoughtful!

Birthday gifts to feed the body and soul!

So what about those top-siders on the Amazon list?  Well, he did get money from our parents…