The Best Christmas Present Ever

Stealth isn’t usually one of Honey Bear’s strong suits, especially when it comes to presents. I always manage to figure out what he’s giving me, even though I don’t make any particular effort to do so. I guess I just know how his brain works. After all, we’ve known each other for nearly half of my life.

So imagine my surprise when he put the last present under the tree this year and I had no idea what it was.

He even warned me this was coming. Last December, he told me that there was something he wanted to give me but that he wouldn’t be able to give it to me that year because it was going to take some time. I thought that sounded interesting, then promptly forgot about it. But Honey Bear didn’t forget. In fact, he started working on this gift on January first.

Fast-forward to this Christmas morning. As soon as I picked up the mystery present, a small, book-like package, I knew exactly what it was. I’d seen him writing in it pretty much every day for the last couple of months. (He’d kept it hidden from me before that.) I’d assumed it was a journal, and it was. I just hadn’t realized it was all about me.

This journal has an entry for almost every day, and in every entry, Honey Bear expresses his love and appreciation for something specific I did that day. On one day, he wrote about how much he enjoyed seeing a movie with me in the theater. On another, he told me thank you for taking care of the kids all day while he did homework and went to school. And on another, he expressed how beautiful I’d looked that day.

It is, without a doubt, the best, most thoughtful present I’ve ever received. The small journal itself--and the acid-free pen he bought to write in it--aren’t worth more than a few dollars, but this will be a gift I treasure for the rest of my life.