the Lost Dog (and How I Found Him)

If you remember back to the mention of the hippopotamus I would like next year, you may recognize the green gift bag below- the one I was fairly certain was an empty decoy bag.

“Is there really anything in here for me?” I asked Enric Christmas Eve.

Well, there was. A charm bracelet which I truly love and have wanted for awhile now.

But the bracelet did not explain all the mysterious activities of my husband in the days preceding Christmas. Once I was told not to go in Mama’s room, because Enric was doing “something” in there that I couldn’t see. Another time Enric told me that I might not get all my gifts right at Christmas, but after that any time I asked him about the top-secret “other” thing, he just told me “Don’t worry about it!”

Well, I worried about it anyway. Not really worried, you know, just wondered and mused curiously on what he could be up to. I also suspected this was another decoy operation to throw me off track of what was really in the bag. Maybe there was nothing at all? Enric wouldn’t even tell me THAT! And I couldn’t get him to understand that I didn’t really want to know what he was up to, just whether or not he was actually up to something. I didn’t want to be expecting something, when really there was nothing. We continued on in the annoying battle through Monday and Tuesday after Christmas. The man would not budge on his secret keeping.

Alas, he did not tell everyone else about the secrecy of his plan. Oh, the family was fine, and all played their mute parts well. Enric was betrayed by none other than Weather.com. I just was checking the weather, as usual. But one of the places that Weather remembered was Berryville, VA. “What’s in Berryville?”

Poor Enric. On the one hand, I am glad Enric is not very practiced at lying to me. Instead of just saying “I don’t know. Weird!” he made this conflicted/guilty/perplexed face and told me the whole plan.

He really had a wonderful romantic plan too! Thursday morning, he was to get up for work at the normal 5am time, but then stay at home, on the couch, until I woke up later. When I woke up, I was to find a sweet note from him on his pillow, telling me the plans. Since I found out early though, I didn’t get the surprise wake up, but I did have more time to get ready.

Thursday afternoon, Enric took me back to The Lost Dog Bed and Breakfast in Berryville, VA- one of the places we had stayed on our honeymoon. (The last time we were away by ourselves for a night was before Rubí even existed.) Mama (a.k.a. Best MIL ever) watched the kids overnight, and they didn’t even miss us!

I got a whole day away from my “job,” and we even went out for a very nice dinner too, and the Battletown Inn. If you scroll all the way down on the “Dining” page, you can see the table we sat at on the left. (Enric ate the biggest steak ever!)

We had time to talk, read, play the game I got Enric for Christmas, and just generally “chill” without any tiny children crying, or yelling, or jumping on top of us.