by KissyO

Created on: July 30, 2008

I've never been able to pull off a surprise. I don't have the straight face required when questioned under pressure. Nor am I able to come up with witty responses that leave the gift receiver guessing. However with that said, I was able to keep my husband's Christmas gift of 2006 a secret, but not Lowes.

With that said, the whole shopping experience that Christmas was made much easier by Lowes. I had decided before I went into the store that I wanted to give my husband a new gas grill. I wasn't sure what brand or style to buy, but the knowledgeable staff at the store was able to answer all my questions and help me to select the perfect grill for him.

I purchased the store's service to assemble the grill for me so it would be done properly. It was worth the X amount of dollars it cost to not have the hassle or to give my husband something that would surely be a pain for him to assemble on Christmas Day. The store kept the grill for me, assuring me it would be ready to come home when I was ready to hide it. Little did I know that just a week after my purchase, which I had told the store was a Christmas present, that a customer satisfaction rep from the National Lowes store would call to make sure my purchase was satisfactory.

If I had been the one to answer the phone, everything would have been fine. Unfortunately, my husband, who usually answered the phone, got the call. Instead of asking for the buyer, which would have been me, they instead proceeded to ask my husband how we were enjoying the new grill, which I had just purchased from their store. I had been listening to the conversation from the comfort of my recliner and knew immediately that something was wrong when my husband's face resembled the one after I've thrown a glass of cold water on him in the shower. I heard him say that he was sure they should be talking to his wife and then he handed me the phone with a quirky smirk. "It's for you," he said.

The store rep then proceeded to ask me how we liked the grill. Under most circumstances I would have just let sleeping dogs lie and said it was fine. But I had so craftily pulled off this year's gift and was so close to pulling off the surprise, that I had to let the store rep in on what she had just blown. I proceeded to tell her that I had been very specific when buying the grill, letting the salesperson know it was a Christmas present and that I needed to leave the grill at the store until I could hide it till Christmas. What part of Christmas surprise hadn't

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