It's a Crane Christmas

I hope you all had a great Christmas; we sure did. In fact this whole last week has been terrific. We had my side of the family over to our place on Christmas Eve. A good time was had by all, or at least those that didn't have their face buried in a cell phone. Maybe they had a good time too; but they just haven't texted me yet : )

George has been home with me all week except for a few emergency calls. I think that's been the nicest part of this whole week.

On Christmas day the plan was that George and I would drive up to the lake to spend the day with his family. Unfortunately the freezing rain was more than we wanted to chance so we ended up staying home. It was a nice quiet, laid back kind of day. We slept in, opened gifts, lazed around for awhile and then had some leftover Christmas Eve fixings for dinner. Just my kind of day!

Which brings me to the gift I gave George this year. It all started out by George wanting me to find a really nice model crane kit for a Christmas gift for his brother. Five minutes of him peering over my shoulder as I searched the net and it was crystal clear that this crane would not be for his brother. I'm laughing as I write this... he was way too particular about just what kind of crane "his brother" should get and any special additions he could get to add on to it later.

George was obsessed with this crane until he found out how much it cost. Um, yes apparently these little metal replicas of real construction equipment are quite pricey. Far, far out of my normal gift giving range. We are not an expensive gift type of family. He tried to curtail his enthusiasm after he saw the price, but he kept mentioning it for a week and wanting me to find a cheaper one that was almost as nice. I could tell he really, really wanted it, but felt bad asking for an expensive gift that he suspected I thought was just a silly old toy.

So I found the best deal I could on the internet and talked myself into cheerfully ponying up the cash to make his day. The timing was perfect, the delivery man brought it just as George stepped into the shower. I hurried to hide the box in the back of the bedroom closet so I could wrap it when he was out working in the garage or something. Just before wrapping the box, I peeked inside and pulled out the complimentary catalogue of 156 other expensive toys.... er... I mean "precision metal models for those over 18 years old" after all, we do want to retire someday.

On Christmas morning, after we had been up for awhile, I hauled the box out of the closet and watched as he tore into it. It was as if my husband turned into a kid again! He worked intently for hours and hours putting together his crane. The next day he started in on making all sorts of modifications to make it even more customized.

After seeing how much he loved his new toy, I caved in and told him about the catalogue of other construction equipment; his joy is complete. He's picking out the one he wants for his birthday.