I hope everyone was able to have as nice a holiday as I did. Besides being home for the holidays, my wife gave me quite a surprise!

As a bit of backstory, last year when Dragon announced their 1/72 scale Saturn V I mentioned that I’d made the Monogram (or was it Revell?) 1/96 scale Saturn V when we were still putting men on the moon. I also mentioned I might have to get this kit since it was in my chosen scale.

Fast forward to the weekend before Telford and I’m considering getting one there as it would be 1) on sale; and 2) available since it was not to be found in the US. It was part of my wish list for Telford, but I got so caught up in the other models there that I decided to pass.

My wife asks me what I got at Telford (she is always interested in what projects I’m working on) so I told her and she specially asks what the most expensive item was…

My wife launched into action as soon as she knew I hadn’t bought it, emailing my friend Jim from the club to ensure she got the right one (the kit, not the die cast).

She called the two area hobby stores, neither of which are very close and neither had one. Tom at the one store knew me and did some searching about, my wife even called Dragon directly but they weren’t getting any in the US until January. She also tried eBay and some online shops but they all had to ship from Hong Kong.

Eventually Tom found a friend who had one and was willing to part with it.  She has it shipped to our neighbor’s house.  It arrives on 20 December and while I decide to go joyriding in my Jeep with our dog, she quickly runs over and gets it wrapped while our neighbor’s boys ooh and aah over the big rocket.  I get home never the wiser.

So Christmas morning we get started and as usual I get up early, reminding my wife that we have to get up and open gifts. She asks why I’m so excited and of course I remind her that sometimes Santa puts a Saturn V rocket under the tree!  She immediately asks me why I would say something like that?

After opening a couple of other gifts, my wife starts moving furniture.  To my complete surprise, she pulls the sofa forward and slips out this rather large box, which catches me totally off guard. I’m not sure what it could be, but my hopes are up as I tear into the wrapping and YES! it’s the Dragon Saturn V!

I was nearly in tears as I looked at the kit and realized what she had to go through to get it without me knowing.  She’s special.

*Later I find out that she immediately went into a cold sweat, thinking that I figured out what my gift was – it was hidden so I didn’t even see the box until she pulled it from behind the sofa.  I didn’t know about it, but was using what I consider as a standard “excited boy on Christmas Day” response.

Thanks for looking…