Last year, I wrote about our marriage "starting Kindergarten." I joked with Sam about how we are on to "first grade" this year! But, that seems so little and immature, when our relationship is really much more advanced than that. We have known each other for 19 years, and dated on and off for 17 of those. But, alas, our marriage is still so young, and in keeping with the traditional anniversary gifts, we celebrated our "Iron" Anniversary this year. I looked up "iron" on Wikipedia, and it claims that "pure iron is relatively soft" and it "is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities..." I like these characteristics as our marriage matures. Where we once began with paper and then cotton, we've matured to wood and then to iron - each year, getting stronger with time and with change. It manages to survive dings and the "rough and tough" of time, stress, age, imperfections, mistakes, and challenges. Yet, it's still soft and requires care and attention. I love the symbolism of each anniversary and what each material represents.
This year, we celebrated by going out on a date! Imagine that... a date night - just us! But, before BeeBee & Zaide came to stay with Banner & Quinn, the boys wanted to watch our wedding video. We had been talking (several days or even weeks ago) about what "anniversary" means and that ours was coming up soon. Banner asked, "Are you going to wear your wedding dress?" and then I told him no, that I wore that only on our wedding day. He had seen our video earlier this year, so I reminded him, and he asked if he could watch it again. I had told him we would do that on our actual anniversary, so he was excited when I told him he and Quinn could eat dinner at the coffee table and watch the video before we left for our date. They were too cute watching! Banner waved to the screen, saying "Hi, Mommy! Hi, Daddy!" It's hard for him to believe he wasn't even born then, but it's neat for him to see how little Caden and Mara and Miles were, and all the people he loves so much. It's neat for him to see Bubbie, to hear her voice and watch her. And, I'm pretty sure Quinn didn't eat a thing as he stared at the beautiful people he knows and loves in the "movie" in front of him!
Once Zaide & BeeBee arrived, Sam and I headed out to Kobe for a yummy meal of WAY too much food. I could barely eat anything after I snacked on my fried rice, but it's all so good, I kept trying. I'm pretty sure my little nugget baby was screaming from my belly - "ENOUGH, Mommy!! I can't take all this food!" :) We had a nice time, even with the strangers who sat at our hibachi table... we really enjoyed the couple to our left and had a ball laughing with them throughout dinner. Then, we headed home to relieve Zaide & BeeBee, and once they left, we watched our anniversary video I made.
As in years past, this tradition is the highlight of our night. We look forward to watching our year all put together with songs that become our favorites throughout the year. This year, we had more "kid songs" than ever before, but when we look back at these videos years from now, it will bring us right back to when our kids were small and our days were filled with their things and their lives! I wouldn't have it any other way! After the hour-long video was over, Sam and I just sat recounting some of those memories. He was still wiping the tears from his eyes, just so grateful for our boys and our family. It's always really cool for us to recap the year and to see how much we've done, how much the boys have grown, how many amazing people we have surrounding us, how much love is in our lives. Every couple should do this, seriously! It's a lot of work and effort, but so very worth it!
And then, today, we got to share our video with our friends and family. This is another fun thing that has become a tradition for us, and I love sharing it and having them surround us to help us celebrate. I hope they see how important they are to us and how much we appreciate them being in our lives. We really couldn't have this beautiful relationship without their support and love!
As we went to bed last night, I told Sam I had ordered us a gift to commemorate our anniversary. I wish I had been more sensible and timely and just bought a damn iron - given that our iron could be replaced! But, I didn't think of that. Instead, we have an iron statuette on the way. It is of a man and a woman ready to embrace each other, and their silhouettes form hearts. It will decorate our home and help us remember this Iron Anniversary! :)
Sam, I love you so very much and cannot wait to keep celebrating more and more anniversaries with you. Here's to us, here's to 6 years, and here's to 6 more!
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| Ah! A night alone!! :) :) :) |
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| Sam couldn't keep his eyes open with the flash so bright... which had us cracking up. |
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