Scrubs and Snuggles

Giving gifts and surprises has always been one of my favorite ways to show love to my family and friends. There’s just something special about finding the perfect gift and watching their faces light up when they open it. However, I’ve come to realize that I rarely receive gifts and surprises myself.

I have an amazing husband who shows his love in many wonderful ways, but when it comes to gifts, he prefers to give me money so I can buy whatever I want. While I appreciate the gesture, I’ve always wished he would pick out gifts for me and surprise me with them instead.

Over the years, this has been a bit of a struggle for me. It took a lot of patience and willpower to let go of the expectation that my husband would eventually recognize my love language and start showering me with surprises.

Recently, I decided to take a different approach and choose my battles more wisely (a common phrase in the world of couples, I’ve learned). Instead of constantly nagging him about not getting me gifts, I started dropping hints.

For example, when I needed a new wristwatch, I casually mentioned a few times that I needed to find the time and money to buy one. I didn’t harp on it or make a big deal out of it, but just casually brought it up in passing over a couple of weeks. Then, I stopped mentioning it altogether.

A few weeks later, I found a bag containing three designer wristwatches carefully placed in my wardrobe, clearly left there by my husband to surprise me. You should have seen my reaction—I was like a kid on Christmas morning!

This experience taught me a valuable lesson about marriage: sometimes, it’s better to let go of our expectations and find a more subtle way to express our needs. By choosing my battles and finding a new way to communicate my desires, I was able to get the surprises I love without causing unnecessary tension.

Marriage is a journey, and we’re constantly learning how to better understand and support each other. And as it turns out, dropping hints works pretty well for us!