Continuing on in the spirit of absolutely crushing my parents’ birthdays this year, I decided to fly back to Ontario for a quick minute with a mission of surprising my dad for his birthday.

It was a big one this year – the big 6-0.

What was particularly funny about this trip was about two weeks prior my dad was giving me a hard time about moving across the country and not being able to see me. He went on and on about how he didn’t know the next time he was going to see me. All the while I was trying not to chuckle because I knew I’d see him in a few short weeks.

In a series of things going wrong, it somehow led to the most perfect surprise. My flight was incredibly late so I didn’t get to my dad’s house until shortly after 2am. My grandpa was my accomplice and stayed up late to let me into the house.

While this was the usual time for me to sleep, I knew I wasn’t going to get up in time to surprise my dad before he left to pick up my brother from work. So I just decorated the cupboards with a happy birthday balloon and then went to sleep in the spare room in the basement.

A mishap led to the perfect surprise

Being the worst morning person in the world, I ended up sleeping in until 10:30 a.m. Little did I realize, this was absolutely perfect timing. It would have been 8:30 in the morning in Alberta, and I likely would have just been leaving to head to work since I am notoriously late. I sent a quick text asking what my dad was doing to confirm he was home, then called him as I walked up the basement stairs.

“Rebecca, you’re going to be late for work again!”

“I know Dad, it’s okay though. I’m just on my way. Happy birthday!”

And I pushed open his bedroom door while we were still on the phone.

It was the first time in my life I’ve witnessed my dad be unsure of himself. You could tell he was debating if his brain was working properly. He had absolutely no idea of my plans of surprising my dad for his birthday. He was stunned I was standing in his doorway.

There was not a single gift that would have been better to give my dad for his birthday. He was absolutely delighted all weekend. It was so heartwarming and worth every penny it cost to get me home for the weekend.

I must say, on the last few gift-giving occasions I’ve been gifting experiences rather than things. I’m definitely going to make more of an effort to be creative and try and craft memories for gifts instead.

Do you give experiences as gifts? Would you share your experience gift ideas with me?