So much to do!

I've been busy lately - too busy. I have huge list of things that just have to be done, and my Christmas cards is one of them. Every year we send out between 70-80 Christmas cards and I am running behind this year. So anyway, Aerie comes home last night and tells me that he's been thinking and has decided that he needs to prioritize. I'm like, "great idea!" Then he asks me what he can do to help me. Christmas cards seem to be the big one because they are really time consuming and we want to get them out before Christmas. So after the kids are all tucked into bed, Aerie takes out his glue stick and starts glueing stamps on the envelopes (he has like a million previously used, unstamped stamps) and writing our return address on the envelopes as well.

When he is finished that, he asks me what he can do next, and offers to start baking some cookies while we are doing the cards. I tell him that it's not a good idea because it's too late, and so I tell him that he can wrap up some of the Christmas gifts - and he does. While he is wrapping he starts asking little questions like, "Okay this is for Jaden, who do we put it from? Ethan & Ty or all of us"...I'm like, "I don't know, put Ethan and Ty". Then he says, "What colour of wrapping paper should I use?"...I say, "Use all three"..."What colour of pen should I use?"... So, now I'm starting to give some attitude. I know Aerie just knows that I like things a certain way and I guess he just doesn't want to screw up...but I feel like a mom at this point. All of a sudden he says, "Wow, you're really grumpy!" The truth is, I'm really tired. It's midnight and we are not even half way through our cards.

So Aerie comes back over to the table where I am sitting and starts adding more stamps to the envelopes that I've completed. THEN he starts to do something! He licks the envelopes shut! But along with that came this most disgusting sound of slobber as he licked each envelope. Everytime he did it (about 60 times) I looked up at him with a face of disgust. I'm starting to get real irrritated by this noise and I'm like, "Ugh! Do you have to make that noise - what is that????"

Then he says this to me. "Tracy, how many husbands do you think would sit here and do Christmas cards with their wives, especially at 1:00 in the morning!" Then he starts going through names of husbands that we know and he's like, "Name me ONE guy that you think would do this?"..."And you're giving ME attitude for making noise while I lick the envelopes?"..."You don't know how good you've got it".

We both burst out laughing uncontrollably. It really put things into perspective for me. My mom told me when Aerie and I got married seven years ago to not take Aerie for granted. Aerie is a giver. He is selfless - always thinking about others before himself. He does things to make me happy and take the load off of me - things that I know not many other husbands would do, and although I never really thought I took him for granted, I am realizing that some of the things he does for me/us - I do take for granted. Aerie and I have always made it a priority to be polite to one another behind closed doors. We say thank you & please all the time, and we believe that it is a wonderful model for our boys. We can tell them to say thank you and please, but ultimately they are going to do what we do, right? Even though I say please and thank you to Aerie, sometimes I find that maybe I just do it out of habit. Last night while he was handing me piles of stamped Christmas cards, I said thank you each time, but I don't know if I really, really understood the sacrifice he was making for me - simply out of love. He just loves me and wants to spend time with me. I think that's so sweet.

I have a question. I would LOVE to hear from anyone who knows or IS a husband who would actually DO all these things that I've described here. Just so that I can tell Aerie that he's not the only one :)