Collection

I'm not a collector.  Unless you count a collector of clutter.

My husband and his family are collectors.

When we started dating and were getting first gifts for each other, my dear husband kept asking what I collect. I stared at him in puzzlement.  I told him I only had one accidental collection, and that was crosses to hang on the wall.  People just started buying them for me, hence accidental collection.

I was wrong. When I was a child, my mom made sure that we had a dated Christmas ornament for each year.  It's really the only thing I've ever collected with diligence my whole life.  Other collections end up forgotten as I have moved on to the next interest.  I have every ornament in the Frosty Friends series since 1980.  Yep.  That's a freakishly long time.  Last night, Monkey was finally old enough to really investigate.

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I don't see myself starting any new collections, but each year I'm thankful that I bullied convinced my mom to and them over to me when I got my first Christmas tree.  

Redeeming Myself. . .

I need to redeem myself a bit. Turns out that when you link a blog post on Facebook your husband who never reads your blog will then read the post. Then your husband might feel you've said that he's inept. Le sigh. I'm not saying this happened at my house, per se, but just in case. . . Let me list some things that are obvious about my husband:

1. My husband cooks. A lot. And it's even good stuff.

2. If I wake him up, he willingly changes a diaper and rocks the baby girl.

3. On mornings we are both home, he always lets me sleep. Not sure if this is self-preservation or just kindness.

4. He makes me cocktails. Anytime I ask.

5. When I ask, "Honey, would you . . .?" The answer is almost always yes, even if a sigh accompanies it.

6. I'm controlling. He still loves me.

7. I'm bossy. He still loves me.

8. I'm lazy. He still loves me.

9. Two words: grocery shopping.

10. No complaints about girl's night. I need way more away-time than he does, but he gets it and let's me do my thing. He's also never complained about the passel of girlfriends that came with our marriage. He even genuinely likes them an appreciates their relationships with me and how they love our children.

11. He always tells me I'm pretty, even when it's clearly a lie.

12. He once told me my gray hair looked like "blond highlights" to him. He was serious. . . at least I think so.

13. Did I mention I'm bossy and controlling? Yeah, those are pretty big things.

14. He's been known to bring me flowers 'just because.'

15. He's a loving, hands-on, thoughtful, consistent father to our chitlins.