TIMO'S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

This is the story of how we celebrated Timo's first birthday, only a couple of weeks after we started courting (as told by Leah).

We had just started our courtship and already I saw that Timo's birthday was coming soon. I wanted to do something special for him, to make our first celebration a memorable occasion. So, I began to research what I could do for him. I thought of taking him out to dinner, of taking him to the movies, but I wanted something different, something more special. I prodded him for ideas, to see what interests he had. One thing that he mentioned caught my attention, and so I began to plan around it.

On the day, I told Timo that we need to be dressed up for the surprise. Timo then arrived after work to pick me up. I had everything planned out I gave him the first wrapped gift of the evening and told him he needed to open it right then and there. Upon opening the present, he found himself holding a black blindfold. The card accompanying the gift included the statement "do you trust me?" Here, I now had to ask him to put on the blindfold and allow me to drive him to the birthday surprise. I was surprised to hear him agree.

As we drove through the streets of Ottawa, I found it funny to watch him trying to follow the route we were taking. I was forced to make extra turns to throw him off, so that he wouldn't figure out where we were going.

When we finally arrived at our destination, I parked the car and allowed him to remove the blindfold. We were in the NAC parking garage. I then gave him a single long-stemmed red rose and another card. Inside the card were tickets to that evening's Ottawa Symphony Orchestra performance. And then he surprised me by giving me an envelope with a piece of paper stating where he thought we would be going... and he was correct. Turns out, I had dropped too many clues beforehand and he was too inquisitive to leave it alone. Still, he was touched by the effort I had made and was very happy to be there.

So, we spent the evening at the NAC listening to the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.

When the night had ended, Timo stated that I had greatly impressed him with the special birthday surprise. He said that he needed to figure out how to return the favour. And so began the challenge of us trying to surprise each other with special events and gifts.