Tom has never been a big birthday person. Usually we do something fairly low key, and there have been years Tom has removed his birthday info from social media so people wouldn’t know.

But this year was Tom’s 30th.

I wanted to do something to make a big deal about it but also be sensible.

Enter the idea to do small gifts over 10 days.

10 Days of Tom

First, I am no expert wrapper. Just get it covered is my motto. Second, I had already given Tom day one’s gift before I had the forethought to take a collective picture.

Here is what each day brought him.

Day 1: Funfetti cake and Coldstone gift card. He needed his birthday sprinkles.

Day 2: House shoes. We love being old.

Day 3:  Gum and travel teeth cleaning items. My husband doesn’t like to have bad breath or a yucky mouth, and since he will be out of the house a lot these will come in handy.

Day 4:  Undershirts. He has been using his army tans for his undershirts. No thank you. He needed to update his closet since getting out of the Army.

Day 5:  Mike and Ikes. His favorite candy.

Day 6:  Nalgene. This is Tom’s favorite water bottle, and they have been lost (err I lost them) in the last few years. So it was time they were replaced.

Day 7:  This one was just for Tom. But it had something to do with birthday suits. Keeping the romance alive.

Day 8:  Chipotle gift card. This is his favorite place to eat. Always be bulking.

Day 9:  Two wallet sized photos, one of our family and one of just George. Tom’s has always kept photos in his wallet, so he needed some updated ones with George. This way we can always be with him.

Day 10:  Pre-made date cards for the entire year. There is one for each month. We have had a hard time finding time to go on dates and be just us. We usually end up staying home watching a half hour of TV before the dogs or George need us to do something. With this one I wanted to make sure we do something fun and different each month to reconnect. I wanted to be intentional on putting focus on that “us” time. Some of them are random, but they should be fun. Tom was upset that I gave him a gift that he couldn’t fully open since we will open each month one at a time when that month rolls around. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

This was really fun to do for both of us. I liked doing some fun and some practical gifts. It went over well, but now I have set this standard…whoops.

Have you done anything like this? Here is one my friend did. (She was a lot more awesome about her coordination than I was.) How do you celebrate birthdays with your significant other?