Day 12--A Merry Christmas Eve

My gift for today was totally and completely out of character for me.  It was not only something that I would normally never think to do, it was something that I probably would have actively avoided in the past.  I went out first thing this morning and braved the Christmas Eve shopping madness to buy Barney a new Xbox controller.   (Okay, to be honest, it was not as bad as I feared, but I was willing to go fight it out not knowing that).

Last night literally while I was typing my post, I heard the boys upstairs upset because one of their controllers was broken, meaning that only three guys could play games at a time instead of the four who usually play.  I normally get very tired of them playing video games constantly when we are in Houston, but for some reason, I just decided to get them the controller they needed.

So, as soon as Olivia went down for her nap, I made an excuse to head to Target.  I asked Barney to listen for her to wake up and to take care of George.  Instead, he made plans to go out and about himself, assuring me that someone would be around and would watch our kids.  Nothing makes me madder than when he does this to me when we are at his parents' house, and I was especially mad because I was going to go run this specific errand for him (which he obviously didn't know, but still).  Nonetheless, I ran my errand and got him the controller that they needed.

I was pretty nervous about whether or not he would be happy with my purchase because his console and controllers are white, and after looking at two stores, I could only find one controller.  It was black.  And, I think he is only missing some connector component for his broken controller; I thought that he might not ultimately want the entire new controller.  But, when I finally saw him about five hours later and told him that I got it for him, he was very happy and immediately told the rest of the guys about it.  It has since and already been well used.  In the long run, I'm pleased with how today went and hope that tomorrow will have some magic in it as well.

Also, for the record, I spent $50 on the controller--a huge chunk of my overall budget.