Choose Your Own Birthday

My husband’s birthday was yesterday and on Friday he accused me of forgetting his birthday. Now how you can ‘forget’ something that hasn’t even happened yet, I don’t understand, but he was sure I forgot about him.

Well, he ate crow on his birthday when I busted out my present : “Choose Your Own Birthday”. This idea was inspired by my brother-in-law (soak it in Bryan!) who did this for his wife and my daughter’s new found interest in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” book series.

Now this fun idea takes a little preparation: I came up with 3 categories: 1-Dinner, 2-Activity, 3-Dessert and I came up with 4 options (A-D) in each category. For example, the activity choices were an action flick, an arcade, the driving range, or shopping for summer clothes. I tried to think of places that HE would enjoy and activities HE would want to do since it was HIS birthday; the night was not about my preferences. (This might be the only time I would consent to go to an all-you-can-eat-Brazilian BBQ.) I wrote the choices on index cards.

I put each option in an envelope and labeled the envelopes A1, D3, etc. so that I could keep track.

Now my brother-in-law wrote “Feeling Creative” or “Feeling like Italian” on the outside of the envelopes as clues, but I like to complicate everything so I wrote 4 line poems as clues for each choice. I taped the poems to the envelopes.

Then I bundled the category and tied all 4 with a ribbon knot. Every time I wanted to cutesy it up even more with scrapbook paper or borders or fun fonts, I kept reminding myself that “this is for a man and he won’t care”.

I also did a little research so the night would run smoothly. I knew what times the movie played at different theaters; I knew the driving range hours (and that it was heated) and I knew every Baskin Robbins in the area just in case.

My husband hates surprises so this idea was extra fun for me as I watched him deliberate over the poems. We ended up just going to dinner and a movie like every other date, but this time felt different. My husband knew I thought about him, cared about his interests, and he knew I didn’t forget his birthday.