I like to do nice things for my husband. This year I wanted to try something new. After leaving behind my cake business I found a lot of spare time on my hands. I took to my favorite place… Pinterest to find something fun to do. I found a cute “12 Days of Christmas” idea. Here is a link to the page :http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2011/12/on-the-first-day-of-christmas-my-true-love-gave-to-me.html
I jumped on board and started planning. It was a lot harder than I expected. I was trying to stay in a small budget and still be creative and fun. Originally my first gift to my true love was going to be a shadow box for our family ticket stubs from movies, games, and other events but on impulse I gave that to him for his early December birthday.
As December days passed I started to worry I wasn’t going to find enough things to fill up the calendar. A few days before I started leaving gifts, he was raving about the Christmas blend of Starbucks coffee he had enjoyed. Finally an idea I could use!
Day 1: On the 1st day of Christmas his true love gave to him… A Bag of Coffee to brew.
So there you have it!
Yes I found it necessary to make each day rhyme. That, and him sitting on the couch while I was working them out, made things interesting for sure! He was quite surprised on the first day. Actually I wasn’t sure if he liked the idea or not.
Day 2: Two Tasty Treats
Day two was supposed to be our son’s surgery day so I opted for something I could share with him at the hospital. Of course the little man’s surgery got rescheduled so instead my husband got his Throwback Mt Dew and Reese’s Fastbreak at home. The funny thing is I had purchased a bottle of pop a couple days earlier and then accidentally left it on the counter and he drank it. When I saw him walk into the living room with it took all I had not to shake me head. I had to make an emergency trip to the Casey’s to get another one. It made for a fun and memorable day 2.
Sadly, I didn’t get pictures of each day. Some were more personal than others, some less. I did take pictures of a few of his favorites.
Day 3: Three Naughty Pics
By day 3 he was asking if there was a gift since I didn’t leave this one on the counter like the others. Boudoir photos in an envelope on the seat of his car. That was a winner. Yeah and sorry no pictures to share on this one 😉
Day 4: Four Date Night Things
This was supposed to be day 5 or 6 but plans were to go out of town and I didn’t think I wanted to drag along a couple wine glasses, a bottle of wine, and some massage oil. Lol… It just didn’t feel right. So it became day four. Rather than purchase a new bottle of wine I chose to use one of the 3 bottles of the wine I still have from my bridal shower. Six and a half years was not so friendly on the bottle we tried to drink. It was ok but nothing great. We probably should have drank it long ago but 4 kids in 5 years hasn’t allowed much time for enjoying a glass here and there.
Day 5: Five Ornaments
We have five kids in our arms so I thought it would be fun to enlist the help of the kids on this one. Each of them painted their hands white and helped me create snowmen out of their handprints. The turned out cute. *Another Pinterest idea* My husband actually got to watch us create these over Thanksgiving while we were making other family gifts.
Day 6: Six Beers for Drinking
There is nothing more weird than walking into a liquor store at 11 in the morning to purchase booze with three kids under the age of 5 in tow. The guy at the counter snickered while we were digging in the cooler creating our mixed 6pk. Or it could have been when my 5yo desperately wanted to carry the 6 glass bottles to the counter 2 at a time. Either way, we did a good job of picking a few favorites and a couple ones he had talked about trying.
Day 7: Seven Ways I Love You
The higher the day number the harder, and more creative, I had to be. So for day 7 I opted for different candies. I will admit I am creative however I am not good at creating many things completely from scratch. I really wanted to attach little tags. I had to google a while to find exactly what I was looking for but I finally located something I liked. This sight is where I got the generic tags. http://www.thedatingdivas.com/you-me/show-him-the-love/clever-candy-sayings-for-almost-every-occasion/ I wasn’t completely satisfied with just the tags to I included some special moments that we have shared together that make me love him more.
Day 8: Eight Blocks for Building
The kids and I sifted through 2 totes of pictures to find enough to fill some cut up 2×4’s and 2×2’s. We painted the 8 blocks and used mod podge to attach the pictures. One side was pictures from our wedding and the other was our superheros. I attached our special Dad quote to the main block. I think the kids like them since they have already run off with them!
Day 9: Nine Years of Christmas
When I started this project I knew this day right away. This year we celebrated our 9th holiday season. While we were sifting through all our pictures I also located memories of our first two Christmas seasons as well as a picture card we have sent each year for the last seven. When I gave this gift my husband’s exact words were, “I thought you didn’t like scrapbooking.”. He is right, it really isn’t my thing but I will do something once if it might mean something to him. I left a place for writing our memories later. I thought that might be a fun way to spend a few date nights.
Day 10: Ten Quotes Inspiring
I thought this day was going to be easy. I was definitely wrong. I couldn’t decide if I wanted bible verses or quotes. There are good bible verses but I couldn’t quite find ones that fit the bill. I googled and found lots of quotes too. Again nothing quite was what I was looking for. Instead I used some of the quotes that were close to what I needed and added/changed some words to make them more personal. After the work I put into coming up with the quotes, I had no time to make them pretty. Just some construction paper and scrapbook stickers. I think he liked them just the same.
Day 11: Eleven Favorite Cookies
This was supposed to be his very favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies but if you had seen my counter you would understand why he got a bag of oreo cookies and a rain check. Christmas baking season and a holiday party filled the counter and 3 tupperware containers full of yummy treats. I think I can fit his special treat in January when he can enjoy them.
Day 12: Twelve Date Nights Prepped
So my husband is not a date night planner and likely never will. I decided to take day 12 to prepare a date night each month. Since day 12 landed on Christmas, he got to open a small box to find 12 envelopes. Each envelope has cash to use during our date and a certificate and cash to pay our two older boys for their daycare services. Each envelope has a date it must be used on. I chose the 12th of each month, fitting I suppose. According the to calendar it will only fall on a busy Friday or Saturday night once. All the other 12th’s are on week days. Now all we have to do is take turns deciding where to go or what to do. I can’t wait until Jan 12!!
My husband and I enjoyed this project enough I might try it again next year! I was able to keep days 1-11 within my $50 budget by using things around the house and purchasing a few things as needed. Now that I have a whole year to plan who knows what things I could find to do. The hardest thing will be keeping it under budget. 😉
