A good beginning

I am the world's worst guesser. Seriously. I should never be allowed on any sort of game show where the only thing you have to do to win is make a guess. Because I would suck at it.

Every year I manhandle all of the presents that the DP puts under the tree for me. I shake them, I turn them over and over again, I will even smell them if I think it will give me a hint. I do this because part of my personal holiday thrill comes from knowing what my presents are before Christmas morning.

I know. I'm sick.

As a child I indulged this passion by snooping. I snooped early and I snooped vehemently. In fact, I snooped so thoroughly that I often found other people's presents and thought they were for me. (One of my old roommates loves the story about my 12-year-old self finding a smart business suit in my dad's section of the closet and thinking, "It's a little mature for me, but I like it!" Of course it was for my mom.)

If I couldn't find something before it ended up wrapped and under the tree, I had to be even sneakier. I had to very carefully unwrap and rewrap the present. Now, that's not possible with every package, but it works on most.

It may sound awful and I'm sure some of you are out there exclaiming, "She's ruining the surprise!" but I beg to differ. I love the subterfuge of it all AND I still enjoyed opening the presents on Christmas morning. It was totally a win-win situation.

Then true love entered my life in the form of the DP. (Technically in the form of the boyfriend who morphed into the DP, but that's just a minor detail.) For the first time ever, I couldn't bear to ruin his fun of giving me a great surprise.

Which is where the manhandling comes in. And then the guessing.

So a couple of weeks ago the first gift from the DP is put under the tree. I go through the dance - it's small-ish with a bit of rustling shake to it and it's pretty light. Obviously it's tickets to either The Sound of Music or Jersey Boys. Either show was on my list, so I'm happy. On Christmas Eve, two more presents from the DP arrived under the tree. One is a small, hard rectangle, which I have no clue about, and the other is a long cylinder. Like a poster tube. And it has no shake. Seriously, when I tried to shake it, nothing happened. Watch:



(I apologize for the ugly pjs. I was saving the cute ones to bring up north the next morning.)

At first I'm baffled. I feel certain the packaging is just a decoy, so it could be anything inside. But it would still have to be something that wouldn't move once it's in there. And then it comes to me-it's the ShamWow! We had recently seen the infomercial again and I had (once again) marveled at the amazing capacity of the miracle shammy. Then we had seen them at that store in Eaton Centre that sells all the crap from infomercials. (Not that the ShamWow is crap!) Since we were working with a limit on each other's gifts, I figured he'd probably blown most of it on two tickets to a show and the ShamWow was a smaller gift to supplement and to make me laugh. (Plus I really, really do want one.)

So I knew exactly what the DP was getting me. Sure I'd thought the same thing last year and the year before, and I'd been wrong both times, but this time I was definitely right.

(Did I mention that I can never guess the plot turns in movies?)

Okay, so Christmas morning dawns and the first present the DP hands me is the small mysterious gift. It's "Tales of Beedle the Bard," which is a lovely choice for a Harry Potter fan like myself. (Also a good "extra" present, I thought, since he'd spent so much on the tickets.) Next I thought he'd hand me the present with no shake, so he could finish big with the tickets, but he hands me the tickets.

Only it isn't tickets! It's a gift certificate to put towards some personal training at my gym. Which I TOTALLY wanted! And was completely surprised by. Nice move!

Now I'm confused. Why would he finish up with the ShamWow?

Only it isn't the ShamWow. IT'S AN ORIGINAL PIECE OF ART!!!! A piece of art I had pointed out to him on Etsy, but that he wasn't initially all that crazy about. I was so joyfully surprised that I was speechless. ME! SPEECHLESS!

Oh, it is so lovely and unique and interesting. It's called Agaetis Byrjun (part 2), which apparently means "a good beginning" in Icelandic. I love, love, love it. And he went over our limit because of the crap Canadian dollar and all the duty he had to pay on it. I have to get it framed now, which will be pricey, but I don't care. It's my first ever actual piece of art (it's numbered 17 out of 20) and it's the most special gift I've ever received.

Well done DP!

The only problem is that the part 1 piece is still available for sale on Esty. (The link gives you an idea of what my piece looks like.) And I kind of really want it. They would look so great together. But I still have to pay off the fancy machine I'm typing on. Plus I have to top up my tax account and go on vacation in a couple of weeks.

What do I do!?

Tax goal: $2000
Current balance: $1045