Getting excited… Our 1st year wedding anniversary is Sunday!  I was also getting stressed out.  I made a commitment for Saturday a couple of weeks ago which I conveniently forgot about until today.  That means that any anniversary gift shopping had to take place immediately!  I had a great idea for a gift for my sweetie, but it could only be purchase on-line, and the product was sold out.

Sadly, I did not have a back-up gift plan, and I was feeling the pressure.  There’s a lot of pressure on certain occasions to get the PERFECT GIFT–to do the PERFECT THING to celebrate.  It’s the same sort of pressure I associate with Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  The occasion should be celebrated in the heart, but somehow it gets tangled up with fancy presents and exotic plans–or at least, feeling the need for such…

I regretted that I made plans for Saturday, because that would make it really hard to put together a special, gourmet six-course meal for my husband, buy and light 100 votive candles, put brand-new 1000 thread-count sheets on the bed and find something special from Victoria’s Secret…Oh, and get some strawberries, champagne, and chocolate…and hunt down our wineglasses (they are probably in the grain bin–we have stuff stored in odd places while we are working on finishing the house.).

Today, I pestered everyone at work with questions–what did you get your wife/husband for your 1st anniversary and what did he/she get you???  I asked everyone that came within shouting distance, and I got a wide variety of responses from the engraved pocket watch, to a weekend away, to the “I don’t remember.”  Oh, and I just remembered!  I should probably make a back-up cake just in case the year-old wedding cake has freezer burn.  Hm…

Ha!  The sanity of the Lord saved me from all this.  I actually asked my sweetie nonchalantly if we could go out to eat Saturday night.  Done.  Then, I ran to town today (a mere 90-minute drive one way) and bought hubby a very practical (not engraved) gift that I think he will like.  (Can’t tell, in case he is reading this.)  I found the perfect card for us–it is one of those quotes from a young child and it says, “They lived happily ever after.  And the next day, they got up and went to work.”  When you open the card, it says, “Fairy tales really do come true.”  Perfect for my  hard working honey.

Now, I am a bit more relaxed.  Gift is wrapped.  Card is signed.  I shall leave the rest until Saturday.  I love being with my husband and one of the things I enjoy most about our relationship is the spontaneity, creativity and fun.  I am convince that we will have a memorable and special anniversary, even if we don’t jump through every single (romantic) hoop this year.  After all, if it’s stressful, that sort of takes the fun out of it.  And to be honest, I adore wedding cake–doesn’t bother me if it’s a year old.