Getting creative......

Dean's birthday was Monday.  We've been together for a long time.......and finding the perfect gift gets harder and harder.   It isn't because I don't know what he wants.

When you are married a long time, you tend to just go out and get what you want/need when you want/need it.  So by the time birthdays or Father's Day or Christmas rolls around, it is harder to find something to give him.  At least something within reason.     The "within reason" means a lot when you are raising 2 kids, both of whom are getting ready to drive/enter college/etc.....
"Within reason" means no to that amazing vintage Corvette he would love...it just isn't meant to be....at least not yet.   Sorry honey, ONE day.....

So, over the years, I've gotten creative....

One year, I gave him a dessert of the month club and made him a new dessert each month.  He LOVED this because he loves sweets and it forced me to make something OTHER than chocolate!
It was also fun because it was a gift that kept giving.  Each month I would present it and everyone would vote on which desserts were worthy of making again.

Another gift I gave him was a case of different red wines.   I did A LOT of research for this one and bought 24 bottles of wine over the course of 3 months.  By the time his birthday rolled around, he had an amazing assortment of wines he had never tried.  I got him some lower end, some higher end and some mid end priced wines.  

This year, he picked out a new phone....but it doesn't come in until the end of the month and I couldn't let his birthday come and go with NOTHING to show for it.   

So...I put together an "Orchid of the Month Club" membership for him.   Like the dessert club, it is a gift that keeps giving, which he will love.  

The first installment is this lovely Phalaenopsis hybrid:

It came in an awful pink pot so I fixed that with hot glue and sheet moss....

....and he LOVES it!    (Of course, I knew he would...)