Birthday surprises

Ooh, I was good. I really pulled off the secrecy perfectly.

Tony & I haven't had a night away since mid 2006 (well, he has for work). I had it all planned for one night of peace and relaxation.

I booked a hotel room in a swanky, posh country hotel back in November. Dinner, bed and breakfast, 4 poster bed! The day after, I took Ben for his ortho appointment and the doctor gave me the date for Jack's postponed surgery on his foot - January 16th! I deliberated and asked them to change it. Luckily the next date was only two weeks later, if it had been longer I'd have just cancelled the hotel. Good job actually as Jack was terribly sick over christmas and had another g-tube infection. It is just about cleared up now so he should be good to go by the 30th (please!)

Anyway.

Made sure he took 2 days holiday from work - check.
Hotel - check.
Mam on standby for babysitting - check.
Reservation double checked - check.
Suitcase packed the day before departure when Tony was at work and put back on top of wardrobe so didn't look out of place - check.
Schedule for kids written up, talk about complicated - check.
A few small gifts wrapped for his "birthday" - check.
Map/reservation printed - check.

On the morning, we did his gifts and cards before Jack went to school and just waited for my mam to come from work. I needed a reason to actually get him there as I wanted to spring the surprise last minute. So, I texted my sister to say I was going to ring her and pretend to ask where would be a good place to go for lunch. I rang, tried to play cool while she's laughing on the other end of the phone and winding me up about the 4 poster bed. "Is it? Linden Hall? I dunno where that is... Tony, do you know where that is?" Ha, ha. So I strung him a line about the apparently had a reasonable lunch menu and secretly put the case in the car while he was distracted.

I couldn't pack the toiletries until literally last minute otherwise he'd definitely have noticed. There was a small panic where he was looking for his new shirt to wear (which I had packed!), I was sure I'd get rumbled so just pushed him to choose something else as I was hungry. My mam came, Tony thought she was just coming for the afternoon so we could have lunch, I asked him to make Ben a bottle and then whipped everything out of the bathroom into a bag and stealthily made it to the car, then pushed him out the door.

It wasn't far away, so we had a nice drive and as we turned off to the hotel (or pub as I was leading him to believe we were going), we approached the hotel. Very impressive building and grounds. I joked "I hope Rachel's idea of reasonable is the same as ours, it might be out of our league here" and we pulled into the car park. The hotel was off to one side and the restaurant/pub to the other, he started to walk for the pub and I said "No, this way". "What?". "Surprise!!". He was gobsmacked.

I did good, he didn't suspect a thing :)

It was quite a cold and rainy day, but it couldn't have been more perfect. We had nothing to do, which is just what I wanted! Simple peace and relaxation. We got the the hotel door and the concierge opened it for us. He was dressed like a butler. I know this is common place in the US, but it isn't typical here. We checked in and he carried our bags, again not typical so I panicked a bit as I didn't have cash and didn't know if I was supposed to tip him, but he showed us around, dropped our bags and took off with no hesitation so I don't think we could have tipped him if we wanted to. And get this - the key to the door was a...gasp...key! Haven't seen that for years. We usually stay in city hotels so have those swipe card things.

Our room was ground floor overlooking the gardens/grounds, it was silent. We set our things down and went to look around the hotel. They had huge drawing rooms with real open log fires. Huge, not these little pretend ones. I mean, this used to be someone's house! It was a bit too nice, I was falling asleep reading my book with the warmth.

I also had the best night's sleep in a long time. Usually hotel beds are uncomfortable, or the pillow isn't right, or the light shines under the door, or you hear traffic, blah, blah. It was pitch black (which I love!!), so quiet and the bed was just to die for. I set my alarm for 8.30 (!!!!!!!) for breakfast. I was shocked when it went off as it seemed like it was only 5am.

So, I'm recharged. One evening did the world of good for us, we connected. Of course I missed the kids, but it was nice to be *me* without having the be in mother mode. It was comparably expensive for our usual choices, but worth every penny. I would definitely like to go back. If I did, I'd remember to bring our swimming costumes as I forgot and we couldn't take advantage of their pool/steam room/leisure facilities. Bummer.

I know this post is very boring and far too long, but it's been a while since we had any luxury and I want to remember this feel good feeling. It was just bizarre as there were little cards in the room saying "Please call room service for milk, ice, etc" and we're not used to being waited on so felt a bit guilty for people just bringing it to us :)