Allergic to surprises

Our blog project group has once again changed by one member, but I'm still calling it Blog Project 3.0. The newest member is Darwin Shrugged, a friend of Froggie's. I recently got to know her better through "52 Stories" and I look forward to what she has to say on the upcoming topics.

This week Moma Rock chose the topic: Are you good at keeping secrets? Describe a time you were able to keep a secret, and another time where you were unable to. What were the outcomes in both scenarios?

First, read what everyone else had to share on this topic:
Darwin Shrugged
Froggie
Moma Rock

It's ironic that this topic came up recently because my husband was telling me that he couldn't share some information with me that he learned at a meeting from our shul. I told him that I wasn't going to tell anyone else, but his lips were sealed. I've dropped it since then.

In any case, I've kept secrets for other people. Some were deep and some were light.  My older son asked me to keep a secret for him a few weeks ago. It was a very minor secret, but he was protective of it, nonetheless. This was coming from someone who won't let us keep secrets from him, even when they're for good things, like surprises. He claims he is "allergic to surprises."

Having said that, I will talk about some good and fun secrets that were related to surprises, since I don't feel like talking about deep, dark secrets.

The first one, of course, was our trip to Disney World last year. My husband and I kept it a secret from our kids for nine months! Toward the end, we convinced them we were going to Chicago so we could surprise them at the airport, like other families do when they want to tell their kids they're taking them to Disney World. (I'm such a dork that I actually cried while watching some of those videos.)

Here's a video showing how we surprised the boys. There's even a photo slideshow afterward.

As you can see (if you watched the video), it backfired a little, as our older son was disappointed that he wasn't going to Chicago. Now when we go on trips, he doesn't believe we're actually going where we say we're going. But was keeping the surprise worth it? YES! My husband actually got tripped up once and almost ruined the surprise, but our son was so convinced we were going to Chicago that he actually corrected him!

Recently, my in-laws came in town for our daughter's birthday. We didn't tell the boys because if the weather was bad or something changed last minute, we didn't want them to be disappointed. Even when they were on the road, almost to our house, we carried out the surprise. We even had the kids call them to wish them a good Shabbos like they would any other week. Keeping it a surprise was definitely worth it because when my older son saw his Bubbe, he practically glided down the hallway to give her a hug.

Another time, I pulled off a good surprise on my husband by hosting a surprise party for his birthday, shortly after we moved to Maryland. I was impressed that we had such a good turnout for being new in the neighborhood. He was so clueless about the surprise that he kept fussing with our front door window curtain frame when we first came in instead of going into the family room. He definitely was surprised though.

A couple of years later, I tried to surprise my husband again for his birthday by taking him out for sushi. However, a friend of ours forced me to ruin the surprise by inviting him to come out for sushi a few days prior to his birthday. I kept telling him that it wouldn't be a good idea and then I had to confess why. It took away the momentum out of the surprise and I was all annoyed that I had to be put in that position.

The other good surprise I kept was when I became pregnant the first time. I totally surprised my family with the news. My cousin suspected it a month before I broke the news, but my mom thought she was crazy at the time. The second and third time around, they were on to me, so it was harder to keep as a surprise (but the main reason I didn't say anything for three months was due to Jewish superstition). I was disappointed when I couldn't pull off the surprise element of it the third time around, as my mom said something to the extent of "come off it already, we know you're pregnant!" I think we were able to surprise my mother-in-law though, even though I worried she suspected something was going on a couple months prior.

I'm genuinely hard to surprise, but my husband has pulled off some good ones on me, like when he proposed and the recent fun day out he planned for our 10 year anniversary. (Our older son was upset that he wouldn't even tell him what he had planned for me.) He also did a fun surprise with my 30th birthday cake, which I did not see coming at all.

Secrets can be good when they're related to something good, unless you're allergic to surprises. I'm just allergic to having surprises ruined!