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| Hubby gives me a victory spin on the day we got married - 08/25/08 |
This led to what I believe is a brilliant idea: While I am a huge fan of our anniversary, we have still not mastered the art of celebrating it. I tend to talk about our anniversary for weeks leading up to it, asking Hubby what he wants to do, how he wants to handle the whole gift exchange thing, when we're going to take time out to celebrate.
That last bit is the main point. It's not so much that I want to do something super fancy like take a huge trip or eat a decadent meal or spend gobs of money, although I'll acknowledge that I do like to do things that are super fancy like all of the above. The gift isn't the biggest thing on my agenda, either, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't want anything. I do. I like gifts, both giving and receiving.
It's mainly that I want this day to be special. Acknowledged. Celebrated in its own right. Officially. Not shared or tacked on to any other sort of event or happening. I want to be able to say, "This is what we did for our anniversary." Because four years of marriage is a big deal, you know? And we should treat it as such.
That's what led to our brilliant idea. Because, you see, we've actually already celebrated our anniversary. We've gone to Discovery World, which was on our list of to-dos for awhile; we saw our favorite band at Irish Fest and danced in the rain to their music (a waltz, no less); we did a little antique shopping and ate lobster; we took impromptu anniversary pictures while dressed all pretty at our friends' wedding on a lake.
But none of it was "officially our anniversary celebration" (although Discovery World was semi-official. Don't ask me to explain the difference. It's a super girly impractical and emotionally-based differential. You either get it or you don't).
And we haven't exchanged gifts. Haven't even purchased them yet. Haven't even decided whether we will purchase them, or whether we'll make them, or whether we'll pick them out together while on some excursion. But mark my words, there will be gifts whether big or small.
So here's what we decided to do to prevent this annual ambivalence that seems chronically tied to our anniversary. Don't get me wrong, we've had some great anniversary celebrations so far. Dinner at a Turkish restaurant followed by a play last year was sublime, and probably the best we've done at "officially" celebrating so far! But we struggle to decide when and where and how we will officially celebrate. Inevitably, we wind up celebrating and exchanging gifts a month or two after the fact. Last year, we stretched it out and exchanged gifts in three stages as they arrived in the mail (we're big online shoppers). Really fun, actually! We might keep some of that going.
So, to satisfy my need for all things official, we have decided to have an anniversary weekend. A get-away. Time for just the two of us (and maybe our future kids) set aside apart from our daily life to celebrate our marriage and the accomplishment of preserving and nurturing it for yet another year. Because that's the way it should be. This will also help us with our goal of exploring the place in which we live: visiting new towns in our state, trying new experiences in our community, and exploring our extended back yard.
We haven't chosen where our get-away for this will be yet, but it will most likely be in October sometime, since that's the first we'll have available. What can I say? It's a busy time of year and there are a number of non-anniversary get-aways scheduled between now and the end of September! But mark my words, an official anniversary weekend is in the works. And there will be gifts, especially the gift of each other, together, celebrating our marriage. Officially.
Happy Anniversary, Hubby.
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