Marriage from Scratch: Secret Blown?

Although hubby and I have been together for years, we are new to this marriage thing. This means that we are learning more about all the little things that you realize when you live with someone. Like, the place in the room where your significant other piles all of their clothes, or you may be learning who puts the dishes directly into the dishwasher and who leaves them sitting out when they are finished. One thing that is new for us, and especially tricky with the holidays coming up, is sharing a bank account and not finding out what we are getting each other for Christmas. We are still trying to figure out a solution...

My birthday is also coming up four days after Christmas. My hubby devised a plan to find a way to buy me a birthday present from the money he had made himself, and he thought he was being so sly. Unfortunately for him thought, I killed his buzz. Here is how it went down:

Stephen has been working occasional weekends for a catering company downtown. After working, he received pay checks and tip checks in the mail. Well, I started realizing that it had been awhile since we had received any pay checks for some shifts that he had worked. I decided to mention my concern to him and the first few times he blew me off. He would say things like "I am sure they are coming. It's fine. They will send them." But quite a bit of time had passed. I was turning into a worried wife because he worked for that money , and we definitely could use it! Eventually I told him that he needed to email his work and tell them he had not received some checks for shifts that he had worked. He told me he emailed them. When I asked if they responded he told me yes and that they were mailing him the money. Phew, I was relieved. But the checks never came! Now I was mad. I wanted to know where the money. During this particular conversation, I was driving on the 80 mile drive home from visiting family in Corvallis. Stephen looked at me and said "babe, they mailed the checks a long time ago. I cashed them and I have the money. I am saving it for your birthday presents though so that it is money that I earned (since he is in school I have been the one working right now). Wow. Shoot. I blew his surprise! "What is wrong with me?" I thought. But my loving husband;'s reaction? He understood. He had talked with a friend of ours about this situation and realized that he would just have to tell me that the pay checks had come and what he was planning to use the money for (my birthday present).

This is just one of the many reasons why I love my husband. He realizes that this sharing a bank account thing is new for us, and he wants to try hard to make the upcoming holidays special for me like they have been every year.