When Tomi Tuel's husband comes home from a business trip, she grills him a steak and mixes up a Mudslide cocktail, bakes a cake and hangs party streamers from the fan over the kitchen table. Once after an especially long trip, she and the children dressed up the dog—in a tutu, reindeer ears and a sign around its neck that read: "Welcome home, Dad!"

"He thanked and thanked me," says Ms. Tuel, 48, who lives in Folsom, Calif., and is a state budget analyst. "He was just gushing."

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