New Year's letter to my husband

My dearest husband

The things that annoy me most about you, are the things I adore. That symbolises beautifully how our relationship has been a series of contradictions since the moment we met. I can be anything between analytical, obsessive and indecisive (meaning: how do I still sleep at night?), you're beyond impulsive (meaning: how are you still alive?). I love a good pun and satire, you get frustrated when I don't laugh at your silly jokes. The reverse is true too: you look utterly confused while I'm cracked up on the floor, crying my eyes out with laughter.

Sometimes it seems we couldn't be more different.

Yet, in so many things, we're surprisingly alike. 

Our need for silence, peace and quiet. Our love for good food. Our fondness for our coffee breaks - or for our morning coffee, me on your lap. Our sometimes surprisingly aligned humour, which always amazes us. The way we enjoy a beautiful piano piece. The way we hold our breath when the heron dips its feet in the pond. Our excitement over our garden-visiting fox and our accompanying wild plans to track him with a GPS device. Or domesticate him. The way we go completely over the top when we start fantasising. Our dreams for the future.

We both hate public speaking.

You make me laugh. You support me in any way you can. You aggravate me. You fascinate me. You love me. And I love you.

Over the past year, I tried to take notes of sweet things you said and did. Here's an extremely small selection of these. 

Surprise

You've spent weeks - in secret - learning to play the Aladdin song 'A Whole New World' on the piano, just for me. Because that was our wedding song 13 years ago.

I still can't believe you did that.

One evening, in bed

Me: Please, tell me a bed time story?

You: Once, there was a pretty girl. She was the prettiest and sweetest girl in the whole wide world. And she was my wife.

Random quote

You: Wow, I love you! I start to understand why people paint portraits. And write poetry. And build pyramids.

One Sunday morning

You go to the bakery for croissants and come back with flowers you picked from a local DIY flower farm.

One wedding party

Generally, you hate dancing, while I love it - how could it be any other way? But this evening you wore your dancing shoes, all night long, even when in line for the dessert buffet. You never like being in the spotlight, but this evening you didn't even notice the people watching us. There was just 'you and me, and me and you, so happy together'.

The evening after my conference abroad

Knowing I traveled for hours to get home - while I absolutely hate traveling -, you went to the butcher to pick something up for you and our son to eat. While it would have been so much easier to just order food or have me eat the meaty dish from the butcher as well, after you and our son ate, you spent over an hour cooking just to plate up a vegetarian dish for me by the time I got home. That was the sweetest thing ever, and yet I reacted so tired and annoyed. Wedded life! Seriously! In sickness and in health. In good times and bad. In times when your wife hugs you and is being the sweetest, and in times she's being totally unreasonable.

Thank you. For the fact you simply understand my brain freeze after a day of traveling - or at least respect it. For the way you take things out of my hands when I get overwhelmed. For the way you say 'O, just shut up and kiss me' in the middle of a stupid argument. For the way you put your nose in my cheek. For just being there, with me.

You're the bestbestest hubby in the whole wide world, hon. Happy New Year. On many more silly laughs in 2025.