This week it is my 10th wedding anniversary, my 32nd birthday, my 2nd "international wax", and the first time that I am leaving my kids alone with a baby sitter while I go out of town w/ my H. It's a big week. Because I think I'll be a wreck by the end of the week, I thought it best if I focused today on the "big milestone". Every year, excluding this one, I make a big deal out of getting the cheapest AND most creative anniversary gift I can come up with....
Years 1-5 are not really worth mentioning. I mean, one year I got him chocolate body paint. Don't ask me how I got from "Cotton" to "Chocolate body paint"... I don't remember, but it made sense at the time. By our 5th anniversary I strayed from the "nonsense gift" and got him a wooden wine rack, since it was "wood anniversary". Boring, and broken within weeks because we have children (see above note on chocolate...). So after that, I decided to broaden my search and really stretch our gifts without stretching the budget. Keeping in mind that the budget was $15 some years here's what I've come up with....
For a 6th anniversary the traditional gift is "iron", so I got him a "Driving Iron" (golf club).
The 7th anniversary "traditional suggested gift" is copper, so I got him some Coppertone self tanning cream. My H is VERY fair.
8th anniversaries are celebrated with Bronze, so I went to a tanning salon and bought him a "spray tan" so he could have the bronze look. It was a better plan with better results than last year's self tanning cream. He loved it.
For our 9th anniversary I was supposed to get him "Pottery", but I'm sorry, what kind of straight man wants pottery as a gift? So, I started thinking. What is made of pottery... coffee cups. I got him a travel coffee mug with 6 refills from his favorite coffee place. Cheesy right? Nope, he loved it. And guess what, ironically, he got me exactly the SAME THING! Only I got him silver and he got me pink. How cute are we? I guess some of that comes back to the $15 budget, $12 for the mug and $3 for the refills.
This year is 10- Aluminum or Tin. Well crap. I can't think of anything. What I really think he needs is a good stiff drink. I mean, after all, the man has been married to me for 10 years of neurotic compulsions and OCD. OK, ok, maybe not OCD... I've decided to get him a "For 10 Years of Service" gift. I'll start with an 80 year old bottle of scotch from Scotland (delivered from Scotland by a returning over seas traveler) and I plan to finish with an engraved pen that says, "For 10 Years of Service". An 80 year old bottle of scotch could last him another 10 years, because he just doesn't drink it THAT often.
The pen is intended as a joke, as was the mug, tan, tanning cream, etc. I know it's not a joke that we've been married 10 years, but I think the key to staying married this long is never losing your sense of humor, and remembering that it's the years, not the gift, that are worth treasuring. "To another 10 years...."
More on the "international wax" later this week...
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