Committed: The Ties that Bond
with Angella Dykstra
I'm a mom of three, a professional accountant, and an amateur photographer and writer. I am not a marriage expert. But my husband and I take "Til death do us part" seriously, and here I'll be sharing how we keep our marriage strong while we both do that insane work-life juggle.
Check out my Work It, Mom! profile and my blog, Dutch Blitz.
As I mentioned in my last post, Wednesday was our ninth wedding anniversary. He worked all day and arrived home with a bouquet of fresh flowers. I kissed him hello, put the flowers in a vase, then…left for the gym. On my way home I stopped at the local ice cream parlor and picked him up a huge piece of German Chocolate Cheesecake. When I arrived home we sat on the couch with the kids and watched American Idol.
Don’t fret; we’re going to celebrate our anniversary in style this weekend.
Celebrating our anniversary always involves dinner out, whether it be on the actual day or the closest weekend. As for gifts, we don’t usually buy them for each other. The first few years we were married, we took turns buying “larger” gifts for the two of us. The year that we bought our house I bought a meat smoker because my husband had been to Texas and fallen in love with the flavor of smoked meat. The next year I asked if we could splurge and completely outfit our yard with flowers and hanging baskets (we do that every year now, but things were tighter financially back then).
The past few years our anniversary celebration has been to spend the day shopping for summer clothes. My husband is like most in that he’s not a huge shopper, but he also knows that he needs to replace his worn clothes every year. He’s a great companion for me when looking for myself because he loves to see what I try on and he’s brutally honest if something isn’t working.
After an afternoon of shopping we’re going to go to our favorite restaurant and then catch a movie (Star Trek. Woo!)
How about you? How do you celebrate your anniversary?
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We celebrate in some way, either dinner out, a night at a hotel, or a holiday away. We just had our 10-year anniversary and went to Fiji for 7 nights while my parents looked after the kids. Bliss!
Every year, we give the “traditional” anniversary gifts. So, paper for 1st, cotton for 2nd, leather for 3rd … pottery for 9th, etc. One day I WILL be getting rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds - WOO HOO!
Hannah | May 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
We do the traditional gifts as well - we love it! Nothing too expensive, though - we focus more on being creative.
As for what we “do” - as a military couple, we have spent 2 out of 4 of our anniversaries together - he was in Iraq for the other two. The years he was gone, I treated myself to a professional massage and dinner with friends! When he’s home, he cooks a nice dinner for me - it’s what I love.
I have friends who celebrate their anniversaries not as a time for them and their spouse, but as a “family birthday” - again, when Dad (or Mom) is gone half the time, it helps to make it fun and get the kids involved, whether you’re both home or not!
Sara | May 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
We celebrated our first wedding anniversary by getting married a 2nd time - this time in the church with friends and family present. Then this year we only saw each other for 45 mins on the anniversary as I was headed out of town for work. So we have no tradition yet, and I’m on the lookout. I love the family birthday concept a commenter mentioned and I’m a HUGE fan of the one big present to yourselves idea too.
lindsay | May 24th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Every week when we go grocery shopping, we take the savings from the receipt and tuck them away in a separate savings account. When our anniversary rolls around, we spend the money on something we want, but wouldn’t otherwise buy. This year, it’s a sleep number bed. Last year, the anniversary fund paid for a good portion of a family reunion/vacation trip. It’s a fun way to save, and gives us a year to decide together what to get ourselves.
We usually exchange cards and go out to dinner on our actual anniversary.
Teri | May 24th, 2009 at 11:51 pm