OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS - DAY #6

ONE UPPER

Day #6

Christmas of 2004 was when Clayton and I "hooked" up.  Our first kiss was after the Spencer family Christmas party on December 12th of that year.  If you want to know details talk to Clayton.  He likes to tell the extended and exaggerated version of that "throw me up in to the door" story.

Anyway...

It was also right after New Year's that he told me that he loved me (He actually said it twice that night, but doesn't remember saying it out loud the first time). 

So the holidays are pretty special to us for multiple reasons.

If you know Clayton you know that he is an habitual "one upper."  I wish I could go back and warn my 23 year-old self of this fact.  It might have saved me some embarrassment. 

Leading up to Christmas I had asked him how much he was spending on my gift.  I didn't want him to get me a lot while I just gave him a little.  You know the drill.  He told me that he was just getting me something small...like $10-15 slippers or something.  Great.  I could handle that.  I still had no clue what to give him.  I thought about giving him a 311 CD (yes back in those days people still bought CD's), but didn't know which ones he already had.  I thought about clothes, but wasn't comfortable about picking out clothes for a guy yet.  So I ended up getting him a gift card to Zumiez and a box of gum (he chewed a lot of gum back in the day).  

Christmas Eve came and I spent the afternoon over at his house.  Before I headed out to my parents and he headed out to his family Christmas party we exchanged gifts.  My $10-15 slippers turned out to be all of Sarah Mclachlan's CD's to date (I think at that time there were 9 or so).  I had expressed my love for Sarah Mclachlan's music so he had downloaded all of her albums and burned them onto CD's.  I also received a pair of $50 Rainbow flip flops (also called the afore mentioned "slippers") and a Volcom wallet (which ended up stolen when his car was broken into 6 months down the road).  After he was so thoughtful with his gifts I was pretty embarrassed to give him his gift card and gum.

You would have thought that I would have learned from that first Christmas.  But nope.  Each year I think that I get him something great, but then he gets me something sentimental or phenomenal and totally one ups me again.  

For example...

1) the paddle boards in 2010.  Talk about the shock of a lifetime.

2) In 2009 he had a dvd made of the last 4-5 years we had been together put to music of "our songs".  I loved watching our wedding video so I guess he thought it was time for an updated one.

3) Ahhh...2008.  The book I mentioned on Day #1.

4) 2007 he made me a jewelry box.  From scratch.  All by himself.  It is beautiful.

5) In 2006 there was this coat I wanted really badly.  It was one of those that had fur lining the hood.  It was out of stock pretty much everywhere except for this one store.  The only problem with this store was that the coat didn't have the fur.  The fur totally made the coat.  Well Clayton purchased the coat without me knowing, found some fur and had someone from La-Z-boy sew the fur into the coat.
6) I'm sure he did something special in 2005, but for the life of me I can't remember.

The point of this memory isn't to talk about how he one ups me all the time.  It was to really help me remember how special that first Christmas season was with him.  The love that he showed to me that first Christmas was a feeling that I will never forget.  He made me feel special.  and Loved.  The most wonderful gift he gave me that Holiday season of 2004 was his presence in my life.  My life was only made better with him in it and will continue to be better because of him.

Love you C-diddy!

This picture was the very first picture we ever took together.  It was on New Year's Eve in SLC.