Surprise from Grammy!

First, let me begin this post by admitting that Kevin is one of THE hardest people to surprise. I am probably inflating his ego a bit in saying so, but typically a surprise for Kevin requires much effort and sneakiness.

I once, years ago, set up an email account for the sole purpose of planning his surprise party, and in our family we pretty much share everything so when he found out I had set up this said account, well, it was a bit scandalous! So I then set up another "secret" account with the address of "keepoutkevin", just in case he should snoop upon it again. I was finally able to give him a good surprise for that birthday, but surprising him ever since has ne'er been as successful.

As we welcomed in 2010 we decided we'd try to surprise him again with a visit from his mom. She was to come in late on the 30th and my excuse to pick her up was that we "needed milk for breakfast the next morning", a very legitimate reason in our house for a late night run. We love our milk! However, Kevin, being home on Christmas break, was incredibly efficient at making sure our groceries were stocked up and had replenished our milk, eggs, anything that we might run out of. I was letting groceries run low on purpose and he was stealing away all my excuses for a late night run. What was I to do? To top it off, he had mistakenly glanced at my open "keepoutkevin" account that my ever-distracted brain left open on our laptop about a month prior, which contained an email titled "for jenny's eyes only". Then he had the nerve to ask his mom about it! Ugh! So he had already been suspecting something, but when Christmas came and went with no big surprise, he was really getting antsy, and I could sense it too, with all of his efficiency, making sure we had plenty of groceries in the house. Double Ugh!! I had even purposefully left the guest bedroom a mess, something I would never do, so as not to arise suspicion. So as a last effort, I tried and tried to get Kevin to go to bed when he NORMALLY does, around 10:30, the night I was to pick up Grammy. But alas, he was awake and wired from a NE win that evening, and by 11 he STILL wasn't close to being in bed. So what did I do? I came up with some lam-o excuse that I needed dry milk to make pizza dough the next day. You know what he said? "We have dry milk in the pantry, I KNOW I've seen some in there." Seriously?!? Since when does he notice dry milk? So after hiding the dry milk we did indeed have, I insisted I needed some so I could start the dough early, and thus left to pick up Grammy, making it to her right as she arrived. We headed home to Kevin who sat on the sofa with a happy but knowing look, and I, the disgruntled wife, scolded him for being nosy, vowing that I WILL surprise him one day!

Well, despite lacking the element of surprise, it was sooooo great to have Grammy visit. Between hanging out in our pjs and sleeping in after staying up late to watch movies, we relished in the new memories we were making. On NY's day we decided to trek out to the hot springs and had a warm, relaxing time, well, as relaxing as two toddlers will let one get. Even with snow gently falling on our heads, or in my case, as snowballs flew from Little Man's hands to the side of my head, our bodies were warm and the scenery was beautiful. Perhaps we have a new NY tradition! And next time we aim to surprise, I am determined to keep even the nosiest of nosies in the dark.