‘I’d Like To Thank My Wonderful Boyfriend’ – Mairead Farrell on the Most Important Gift of all This Christmas

Reliable is the new sexy. 

This time last year I posed the question – what can I get for someone who has everything?

The funniest reply I got was “penicillin”, so I did, along with some other things. Each time I ask my boyfriend what can I get you for Christmas he says “nothing”... (Mildly infuriating because obviously I want to get him a super gift, something he’ll love).

But over the last few days I’ve been given the job of this year’s Ray D’Arcy Show Big Christmas Thank You. This is where we give people the opportunity to say “thank you” publicly over the airwaves to someone who has just been there for them.  It could be your mum or dad, best friend, or partner, a sibling, whoever really.

I spent the entire day Friday reading them and in some cases weeping. With all the awful news we are constantly surrounded by, these emails remind me of what is really important. It’s not big gifts or expensive gestures. What we all need is someone who is inherently reliable. Reliable is an unsexy word to describe anyone, but it’s a trait that only very special people seem to have. Knowing you can count on someone to help you out at a moment’s notice, or listen to you whinge, or give you a cuddle.

One particular email eventually broke me – and I shed a tear! Without giving too much away it was from a young woman. She wrote about how fantastic her husband has been to her over the past twelve months. In the face of unemployment and a personal tragedy he has always “just been there”. He managed to say the right things, cuddle her when she needed a cuddle and listen to her being upset about how things had turned out. All she has asked from us is to say a massive public thank you to her hubby – for being constantly reliable when everyone and everything else around her wasn’t.

So maybe when you’ve read this – take a moment to think of who you could say “thank you” to for being there for you in 2012.

I’d like to thank my wonderful boyfriend for the million little things he has done for me throughout 2012… too many to mention.

ON a lighter note... I’ll be having a White Christmas in my house this year!

My landlord read my “ceiling” article a few weeks ago and has finally caved. I’m allowed to paint the kitchen pine ceiling white.

First coat went on this morning (before he could change his mind). Thanks for the help!

M

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