Surprise!!

Last Saturday, I had a surprise birthday party for my husband. He was surprised, which is always a plus when you are working hard to make it a surprise. The whole process of getting from the idea of the party to the surprise made me wish I had come up with another plan. Let’s just say that I could never be a spy or an undercover anything. The stress of being found out about killed me.

For the last 6 weeks I have been scheming and planning. The idea was so exciting; I jumped in without thinking it all the way through. For example, my husband works from home…how do you prepare for a party when you party pigeon is right there all the time? I had to forgo actual paper invitations and text and mention the invite to people because I was never out of sight enough to be that sneaky. I also had no way of explaining why our usually ample food budget was just not stretching as far as it normally would. I just pretended like all was well and I had no idea what the problem was.

There was also the fact that I had to come up with various excuses why a particular day which was wide open on the calendar was suddenly not so wide open. I had already started planning for one open day when my husband informed me he was working that day…UGH.  I then had to start from scratch with my idea. Oh, and how about the day that we had our argument and I wanted to sock him in the nose? I had a tough time making my way through the plans until we worked it all out and made up. That required me reminding myself that I indeed love him even if he is a total man sometimes!

I should tell you if you are thinking of planning a surprise, really think it through. It was a big success and my husband was very appreciative, but it took a huge toll on my nerves. If sneaking around is your thing, then you will have it made, no problem, but if you are not so great at the whole undercover thing, maybe you will want to enlist the aid of a cohort who can carry the weight of some of the anxiety and stress. Regardless, most people like surprises and it is pretty cool to make someone you love feel special so in the end it is worth all the bumps and bruises when everyone yells “SURPRISE!!”