Certain Qualities

My husband thinks I don’t appreciate him, which is probably mostly true. But, he has done a few things recently that are worthy of note.

First, he worked extremely hard the day before, the day of, and the day after Thanksgiving. Of course, some of that work involved heating up two huge bags of peas that were not on my planned menu, but I’ll let that go eventually.

Then there was the weekend in DC where he didn’t always get to do what he wanted to do (e.g. ice cream sandwiches and The Spy Museum), but he had a good time anyway. Though, he lost our credit card, but I’ll let that go eventually.

After spending the week in DC on business, he got up early Saturday morning to put the trash out and to bring Nicole to her first ever indoor track meet. He left the house at 7:30 and got home at 3:00 and was able to watch her run in two events that lasted a total of about 45 seconds. (We are very proud of Nicole for doing track this season. It turns out track produces a lot of nervousness in the athletes – especially when you are competing against the reigning state champ in your first two events ever.)

When he got home from the track meet, he finished hauling down all the Christmas decorations from the attic and decorated the family room.

Sunday morning, he was off to do some grocery shopping for his mother.

Sunday evening we had a Christmas party to go to. Let me give you a little background here. Remember Senior Night for the soccer team and those posters? I had actually invited the parents of the seniors over to our house to make those posters. Here are the parents with their finished products:

(Yes, Dave made Nicole’s poster, because I had done a terrible job of making Heather’s poster when she was a senior.)

Now, prior to this poster making event, I had never really talked to some of these parents. But I ran into one of them at the local Rite Aid, and she invited us to her party. And I said yes.

Dave kept asking me questions about the party, like who was going, but I didn’t have any answers for him. On his way back from his mother’s on Sunday, he called me and asked if we were still going, and I said yes. When he got home,  he asked if we were going to know anyone there, and I said I didn’t know. I could sense his reluctance.

So, we got to the party, and this is the type of environment where my husband’s skill set comes out, and he absolutely shines. We really didn’t know anyone, including the hosts. But he managed to engage each and every guest in conversation and got them laughing and sharing stories. I was able to smile and listen. By the end of the evening and as we were leaving, I heard things like “Your husband is so nice,” and “Thank you for sharing your husband with us,” and “You’re so different from your husband.”

And today he is back at work – after dropping the dog off at the vet.

I guess I’ll let the peas and the credit card go. Eventually.