A Christmas Present Worth Giving

This was the third Christmas I have had with my wife, and frankly, I stink at giving Christmas presents. I don't know about the "average Joe" male out there, but I just find it hard to come up with any semblance of a good present throughout the year. To be honest, I have a yearly ritual of freaking out about a week (if I'm lucky) or so before the 25th with what to give my dear wife. When the time comes to open presents on Christmas morning I am praying that I was able to swing through and hit a home run.

My wife, on the other hand, has absolutely no problem with doing this. I have no clue how she remembers my ramblings, or other random hints, that I give her throughout the year. Somehow she does, every time! When it comes Christmas time she is completely ready to go and knows exactly what to do for presents, not only for me, but for our daughters as well.

I decided, after last Christmas, that the next one would be different. I told myself that for the next year I would pick up on every single subtle hint my wife would give, and then immediately write it down. Sadly, this New Year's resolution ended up with all the rest of my resolutions in the past: a memory. Come Christmas time this year (the week or so before) I felt the similar sensations of panic that I had become all to familiar with. Luck was on my side, however. I had an bit of revelation.

Being the poor college student I am, quality restaurant food is difficult to come by. Not that there isn't good food out there, but let's face it, there is a hole in my wallet at the beginning of the month before I spend anything. However, my wife loves to eat at this Thai restaurant on Lake City Way. There is a dish there called Massaman Curry and it literally makes her start to salivate the instant she catches a whiff of the sweet aroma. Needless to say, the stuff is not cheap, but I remembered on numerous occasions hearing longing sighs or other similar sounds indicating she was craving the curry. "What can I do?" was my constant thought. One day, in a rush of thought I decided to make the stuff for her from scratch as her Christmas present.

I went through a local Fred Meyer and raided their spice section, getting spices like ginger and turmeric (some stuff I had never heard of before), fish sauce and anchovy paste, not to mention the staples like chicken and potatoes, as well as some pineapple (the secret ingredient). So, for the Christmas present all of the non-perishable items went into a Christmas bag, and the rest of the stuff went into the fridge--into 3 Fred Meyer bags stuffed into a drawer in a very discreet and inconspicuous, pre-chosen location. I knew that this year things were going to be different!

Come Christmas morning, the feelings of trepidation and fright long since abased, the excitement was swelling to unusual proportions. I had built up the gift, so my wife's expectations were up there. She opened the present and was ecstatic. The best was yet to come. From scratch I created the curry paste, and then went through the long and arduous task of making something that I had never created before (I am not the best cook, but I can swing with the best ones when I have a good recipe).

After the mixing came the simmering, and that was by far the best part. The sweet aroma permeated through our entire 2 bedroom apartment. At first the ginger stuck out, but then, surprisingly, I could smell the fish sauce, something I had never recognized before. Every single ingredient contributed to the overall wonderfulness of the scent, and upon getting a small sniff, I heard small groaning noises coming in from the front room. Turning around, there was my wife, sitting on the couch, salivating. The scene was one that would go down in in my memory forever.

Then we got to taste the mixture, and I'm not going to lie, it was good--really good! I had my doubts, making it from scratch, but the curry was just plain amazing, and the most wonderful part was the fact that it would last us a week, tasting better each day. Of all the things I could have done to say Merry Christmas, or I love you, to my wife, the simple act of creating a meal said more than a million words.