Every Kiss Begins With "I'll Take the Garbage Out"

I love the Every Kiss Begins With Kay commercials, mostly because they aggravate the bejeezus out of my husband.  It's even better that they are a Sunday and Monday staple during football season, also known as the Christmas season.    (sidenote: for the first time, Adam just asked to see what I was writing and I had to show him this.  So now I probably won't get any diamonds for Christmas.  Good thing he asked now and not 20 minutes ago when I was working, though.  He really really hates that.)

So I think those commercials are just as annoying as my husband does, but I pretend that I love them just to make it worse on him.  I make kissy faces and ooh and ahh at the TV when they show all the corny looking jewelry and manufactured love scenes.     It's like Christmas come early every time I get to watch one with him in the room, paritcularly if I have done something to earn love that day, because then I can whine about how I never get any kisses beginning with Kay. 

Most of my kisses begin with something much less expensive.   I'm being facetious when I say every kiss begins with household chores (although plenty of them do).    Love lives in my house, and it doesn't need Kay Jewelers to keep it growing.  I don't know any other houses that need it either.    Kisses in real life are born of the life two people are building together.  They begin with a lost girl and a lost boy, finding each other in the dark of their lives and coming out together in the long-forgotten sunshine.  With a rough year in Tennessee, the first year of marriage.  With a spontaneous move to Texas and the following 4 years of building a life together in a place new to the both of us.  

Sure, life isn't always romance - it isn't always log cabins in the woods with sparkling wine and glittering diamonds.  It's messy, it's scary, it's funny, it's sad, it's wonderful.   I would ten-thousand times prefer a years' worth of "let me give the dog a bath tonight, honey" over a necklace.  

I also think that Lexuses wrapped in huge red bows are a little overdoing it for Christmas.  Who are these people....?  So the moral of this story is really just to remember what this season is really about as you are being bombarded with commercials that (frankly) I suspect miss the mark big-time.  There are families out there who are actually suffering just to put one toy under the Christmas tree for their children.  Worse, struggling to provide a decent holiday meal.  As you shop for your loved ones this year, consider purchasing a toy and donating it to Toys for Tots, or purchasing a meal to be provided to a local family from your grocery store.  Also don't forget your local dog shelter, which is most likely in need of blankets and toys to keep our furry friends warm and happy during the winter season.   These gifts will be appreciated so much more than any of us can imagine.