19th of January

It’s a few days until my boyfriend's birthday and I have been planning this for about two months now. I am so excited for what I have planned.

I have a whole scavenger hunt planned where I hide gifts and clues around my boyfriend's house, but that’s not the best part.

There are seven clues and a total of nine presents in total, mostly little small things but I did get him a really nice gift to end the scavenger hunt on and a handmade book that has some drawings in it. I plan on adding more drawings to it as I go along but as of yet there are nine pages of drawings and I hope he doesn’t mind that there are so few pages filled in it.

Anyway… the plan goes like this.

He has to go out for a haircut in the morning of his birthday so that gives me between thirty minutes and an hour to set everything up around the house. I’ve told him to text me when he’s on his way home so that I can greet him at the front door with his first present and “clue 1”.

Before he gets to see his gift and read the clue I have a Hunger Games themed story set up that he will hear as we move about the house. It starts with me telling him what district he's from and what job he has in that district. The way I picked his district and story for this part was by going through them all and picking the ones that aligned with his interests and made him pick a number. He's such a good boy because he picked District 3 which is the one I was hoping he’d pick.

Then he gets details based on interviews and how he decides to react when he’s in the arena.

Can you tell I’m a huge fan of the Hunger Games?

Then he gets the clue and after he solves the clue and finds the gift he gets an added bit of the story of how he fairs throughout the games.

Each clue is written as part story part clue so I needed to make a path through his house in a way that incorporates the way the story is heading but I also added a few inside jokes and cute moments to the clues. I’m really proud of the way I managed to fit all of these things into something that is themed around a story I love so much.

He is aware he’s doing a scavenger hunt, he’s also aware that it’s Hunger Games themed and that I will be telling him a story as we go along. He laughed when I told him but he’s also promised that he won’t laugh because I’m doing the scavenger hunt mostly for my enjoyment and he just gets presents out of it.

Obviously in my version of the Hunger Games he wins so the final two clues end up with him being back home and enjoying his life again back at his computer desk so that I can give him his final gift.

I am very proud of the way I have planned to give him his final gift because FOR ONCE in my life I’ve managed to keep a secret! But the planning of this all begins at Christmas time.

I told his mum that he’s been wanting to get a certain special edition Manga series for his birthday and I said to her if I send her a link to the first book in the series she could get him that for Christmas. And then I got him the second one for his birthday.

She agreed and so that's the surprise.

But the way I am presenting him the gift is by simply placing the book in his bookcase and when we come into his room for the last present I will stand in front of the bookcase until he looks at me.

I’m going to say something along the lines of, “I think I’m forgetting something but oh well,” and then I’ll move out the way and he’ll see it in his bookcase.

I’m definitely more excited about his birthday than he is but oh well, I love to spoil the people I love.

You’re all in on the story now though so you must PROMISE you won’t tell him!