What’s Your Best Surprise Birthday or Gift Caper?

This morning my wife will get up and I’ll ask her to ride our bikes to breakfast. In her bike basket will be her gift, and a handmade card.

Getting it there took over a month of planning and a bit of luck. Good surprises take time.

She mentioned something to me some time ago that she wanted. I feigned interest as I usually do and moved on, it was shopping after all.

Later while she was at work, I made arrangements for the item she wanted to be shipped to Dallas, yup The Dallas in Texas.

To build the idiot husband story, I faked overlooking her birthday last night.  Starting at dinner after the event at the Sag Foundation, Samuel at Calendars on Wilshire had the piano player sing Happy Birthday to her, and brought her a piece of pie. She then apologized for being upset that she thought I had “bought her birthday present in bulk”. It was hard to keep a straight face I’ll admit.

The “bulk present” is a very unique gift from a connection in Hawaii at AcmeStudios.com. They are pieces of Disneyana that he no longer has the license to make. I bought some of the last of the inventory and announced they are gifts for our friends with June birthdays or maybe to be saved for Christmas. She was to pick her birthday gift first, and we would figure out the rest later. When these arrived I was just a tad over excited. More of the idiot husband act.

My plan started to look week up until last week. You see, all month I had not been able to get time to go to Dallas and just as panic was about to kick in, another pilot needed a day off for his sick kid. Keeping the flying gig pays real dividends sometimes.

No credit card receipts, no way for her to know I didn’t forget her birthday. Just an idiot husband going to work as she gets over the flu and needs out of the house.

When I got home last night she was out walking the dog, so getting the present out of the car and into her bike basket was the easy part. I knew she wouldn’t look there, too obvious.

The toughest part might be posting this as I convince her a bike ride is a good idea while not letting her see this on Facebook until we are sitting at breakfast.

I’ll let you know how this caper goes tomorrow. Once she gets up, Facebook, Twitter go off. That is part of the gift, no distractions.

My best caper though was accomplished with the help of my good friends Rick and Denise Starzyck. I played dumb, took my wife to breakfast, the car wash and even Lowes. She was fuming mad and finally gave up on me. She asked to go home. I obliged and even played dumb, wondering why she was mad at me.

When we pulled into our driveway she got mad about the neighbors parking cars there again. She had no idea there were over 50 people hiding in our house all she knew was she married an idiot who can’t remember her birthday. At least she’ll never be able to say I’m not a good actor.

It was my best birthday surprise caper yet. What’s yours? ( I need ideas  for next year)

 

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