My Merry Christmas!

This is what I got for Christmas from Mike! Don't you love the wrapping job? I think that our whole marriage he has never wrapped a present! ha ha. He does cute stuff like this or he commissions my sister or my mom to do it.

Here is my first reaction. My "I can't believe it" reaction. A little background, we decided to divide his bonus equally for Christmas and when the money was gone that was all we'd spend. I thought that new kitchen chairs would be too expensive but that was what I really wanted. Mike urged me to just pick other things. So I did and spent "my" Christmas. Then on Christmas morning I got four of these...
This picture is kind of far away so you can't tell but I am all teary. I couldn't believe that sacrifice that he made for me. He encouraged me to spend my money and then didn't get the PS3 that he wanted so that he could get me even more! I feel almost unworthy of a gift this pure of heart.

I believe that the truest form of love comes from sacrifice. If you want to learn to love your children more deeply, sacrifice for them. I don't mean give them something they need that you are able to give easily, I'm talking about give up watching your absolute favorite show to play that game that you can't stand that they always want to play. (I'm working on this personally) True sacrifice is giving up something you really want to make the other one happy.

Mike did this for me. It for some reason reminded me of when we were engaged and my awesome sisters wanted to make me a King sized quilt for my wedding day. It was a tradition in our family and all the other women chose their wedding colors as the scheme for the squares. My sister who took us to get the fabric said, "You don't have to do your wedding colors, they can be any colors you want."

So Mike said, "Like yellow and green?" (Green Bay Packers colors) Joking I said, "Sure, you have a say in this too." He lit up like a boy on Christmas! I was so cute that I couldn't say no. I had to jump on board and get excited too. So my blanket is green and yellow and I couldn't love it more if it were yellow and purple or pink and baby blue, because it is ours. It reminds me of the joy that comes from loving someone else more than you love yourself.

I know that that is small and insignificant compared to what he has done for me this Christmas, but those chairs mean so much to me because he loved me enough to give up what he wanted for something I wanted! Can I just say that he spoils me like this all the time! He HATES surprises for himself, but he LOVEs to surprise me big!