Monday, June 14, 2010

What Kind of Celebrating Our Anniversay Taught Me




Our wedding anniversary is June 20th, which also happens to be father's day this year. In addition to that, my son's birthday is the 28th (which includes a family and friend party) and my husband heads off for his annual golf weekend on the 23rd. Throw in little league playoffs for three different teams and being seriously short on get-away funds and you can imagine that trying to steal some time to celebrate our big day is next to impossible.

My thought was that if we had 24 hours to ourselves without kids, it would kind of be a mini stay-cation anniversary celebration. The plan was to drop the kids off at my parents house Friday evening and not pick them up until Saturday evening. The first kink in our plans occurred when my son's baseball game was postponed due to rain and scheduled for Friday night at 5:30...Okay, so our date would have to start a little later than planned. And then, at the last minute it was moved again (great, I thought) to Saturday at noon (seriously?). Not to mention two All Star games at 3 and 3:45. Oh well, guess we will have to throw in a couple of little league games into the anniversary celebration.

I have to admit, half of the fun of the evening was getting ready. It reminded me of when I was single and getting ready to go out with the girls. I took one of those fabulous showers where I shaved, deep-conditioned and exfoliated. I took my time, no kids to rush out for. Then, I moisturized, blow-dried and even put on mascara - all the while listening to some great tunes on my iPod. I was amazed that my husband didn't interrupt my little pre-date ritual and by the time we were off, I was relaxed and in a great mood.

Our evening was great, we got to sleep in on Saturday and even though we were pulled in a million directions on our "day off," we managed to fit in about an hour at a local pub to watch the World Cup USA vs. England game (Saturday afternoon at a bar - haven't done that is over ten years).Our night ended with all four boys back at home and our usual chaos returned.

While it wasn't the the whirlwind celebration it could have been, it was just what we needed. What I learned from our time alone was that we needed  more of it. We talk about date night a lot, but it seems we don't make enough time for our marriage as we should. While its great to remember to celebrate the big dates like our anniversary, I realized that we need to celebrate our marriage and each other all the time. I also learned that there is no right way to do it. Honestly, one of my favorite moments of the entire weekend was sitting with my honey at the bar on a Saturday afternoon sharing some nachos and watching soccer. So maybe we will have to get a sitter a little earlier in the day next time. Happy Anniversary honey!

3 comments:

  1. Yes-life with children and grandchildren can certainly mess up your plans, but it is sometimes so much fun to have them, after all isn't that what marriage is all about, family, and yes it is nice to escape it all for a little while-mom

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  2. And yes, I forgot to say a big thank you to Mom and Dad who took my kids (even when they were not so much fun) and are always there to help no matter what. Guess a mother's job is never done...

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