Christmas in our house typically revolves around the kids and making memories that will stay with them forever, so Greg and I don’t typically give each other gifts. We each tend to benefit from the kids’ gifts anyways. I mean Greg gets to go the Arizona Cardinals/Indianapolis Colts football game tonight (Christmas evening), and I’m going to enjoy a 3-day Anime convention the weekend of January 7. :)
This year, though, I saw this post on a Facebook group and was like, “We love Target!” and “We love date nights!” Here we have the opportunity to put the two together. Greg obviously loved it when I shared it with him, and we decided the best night to do it would be the Wednesday before Christmas. This turned it into our Christmas shopping for each other.
We met up at our favorite, local Target after Greg finished up at CrossFit, so he came from working out. I on the other hand actually put on real jeans instead of my beloved yoga pants. We had talked earlier in the week that we were going to have to be careful if we crossed paths as we were shopping and promised to not look into each others carts! We had it all figured out.
Not to brag or anything, but I am really good at this type of thing! LOL! I finished shopping before Greg and even with the store being totally picked over from holiday shopping, I was so proud of my gifts each having a little story with it. Well, all of them except for favorite drink and favorite snack. Not much of a story with a Diet Coke and a pack of peanut butter M&Ms. Unless it’s that I couldn’t find Diet Pepsi which is his actual favorite and had to settle for a Diet Coke.
We did make one alteration to the list. We didn’t feel that we needed to get a movie since we have almost all the important streaming services, so we decided to get a game that we want to play. We are a big game family, so this was perfect for us. Ready to know how awesome I am and the amazing gifts I got Greg? Now, we did implement a budget, but we both went just a tad over. Ooops. Sorry, not sorry.
Something for the home: Digital Photo Frame. Greg works the majority of the week from home, so I thought that this would be a nice addition to his office office set up. He doesn’t have to have multiple picture frames taking up space with pictures of me and the kids. Here he can have one, but have hundreds of pictures scrolling through. I was really lucky that it was on sale and there was actually one left!
Something to try: Where’s Waldo Book. This was my gag gift. I told him that I wanted him to try to find Waldo! HAHA! Plus I was already over budget so I needed something cheap!
Something his favorite color: Shirt - Red “Gone Adventuring.” His favorite color fluctuates, but red has always been a safe bet. I knew that I wanted to try to find him a t-shirt, even though he doesn’t’ really wear graphic Ts. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best gift idea, but the story behind the shirt makes up for it. We love our kids and think they are growing up WAY to fast, but we have already started planning what life will look like in just a handful of years when they are both out of the house enjoying college on their full-ride scholarships. (If we envision it enough, it will come true!)
Our big goal is to travel. I have always had wanderlust and love exploring. We have a plan for combining our love of blogging, photography, traveling, food and festivals/fairs. I won’t give too much away yet as we are about 4 1/2 years away from beginning, but we are excited for that next chapter of our lives. When I saw this shirt, it made me think of all the adventures that are still in our future and knew I had to get this one, even if he never actually wears it!
Something that he needs: Large hour glass. This is my symbolic gift. It’s a large decorative hourglass. Why? Because he needs more time. More time to sleep, more time to work out, more time to do all his wrestling stuff, more time with me! <3 In reality, don’t we all wish that we had just a little more time to get everything in that we need and want?
Something that reminds me of him: Roman Reigns WWE Wrestling figure. I think this is my other favorite find. I knew before we even made it to Target that I was going to buy something wrestling based for this category. I was really impressed that I was able to find this when a Target toy section 3 days before Christmas looks more like the toilet paper aisle last year during the COVID shutdown. Not at all surprising to me, however, was the fact that there were plenty of WWE toys left. Even with what was a pretty well stocked section, I was particular in who I was looking for, and I was thankful that I found the only Roman figure. Why was Roman important?
This is a two-fold gift for me. One, obviously, anything wrestling related is going to make me think of Greg. I’ve been with him for 2 1/2 decades, and wrestling has ALWAYS been a huge part of his life in some form. But, secondly, Roman Reigns also has Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. We are only a few days away from the one year anniversary of Greg’s diagnosis. I will continue to do everything in my power to continue to help him fight this, and it is good to be reminded that there are others out there that have the same thing and are living their lives to the fullest, just like Greg!
Game I want to play with him: Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza. I’m assuming this is what the game is called as that is what’s on the front of the box. It is a card game, and we are big fans of card games. We have yet to play it, but I am excited to give it a try.
So there you have it. The best Christmas Target Date Night ever! Once we finished shopping and checking out, we met at one of my favorite little restaurants, Senor Taco. We ordered our food and then brought in our gifts. We exchanged them by category sharing the stories and reasons for each item while we enjoyed our yummy food.
Curious what Greg got me? Here is the quick list. It’s monumentally more fun for me to focus on Greg than on myself, but I do love my gifts! And this is getting to be a pretty long blog post!
Favorite Snack: Big bag of gummy bears.
Favorite Drink: Starbucks Dragon Drink… yep, I didn’t need to get a drink at Senor Taco. The cup even had my name on it with hearts. Greg told her barista that it was for his wife. He must have been embarrassed with this bright pink fruit looking drink, Very manly, just like him.
Something in my favorite color: a book with a purple cover. I love books and I love purple….
Something I need: Yoga pants and sports bra. He told me that I needed more comfy clothes. How awesome is he! He’s a total keeper!
Something that reminds him of me: a picture frame. I love photography and taking pictures!
Something he wants me to try: a wireless phone charger. I tried it, it doesn’t work very well. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if modern technology just doesn’t like me.
Something I need for the home: A welcome mat. What’s funny is that I too stopped at the display of welcome mats. We’ve been in our house for a year now and haven’t gotten one yet. He picked out one that says “HOME” but the ‘O’ is a big red heart. Greg told me that home is where the heart is and that I’m the heart. Swoon…..
A game he wants to play with me: Second Thoughts. Not sure if he was trying to send me a message with that or not. Spelling is not my strong suit and apparently this is a word creating game based off letters that rolled on the dice. We shall see how this goes!
Lesson Learned: It really is the simply, thrown together moments that are the best and most meaningful. We are simple people with simple needs, but I had so much fun finding and giving Greg things that I probably never would have given
him. We’re at the stage where it’s pretty hard to shop for each other, that having categories to fill made it so much more than just ‘buy each other a present’. We have always made it a point to have date nights as often as we can, and it is an important lesson we learned a while ago. It’s really easy to lose focus and perspective when there so much going on with job and kids. Never, get to busy that you lose focus on each other.
If you are looking for something fun to do your your significant other, Target is a great place to go!
Do you love reading or looking for some books to read? Check out my bookish blog: The Bookshelf