11 Year Anniversary Warranty

People warned us about getting married at Christmastime. Some said our anniversary would get lost in the Christmas shuffle, holiday parties, and seasonal stuff. For some of our 11 years as husband and wife that has been the case, but not this year. We had a weekend long celebration that not only reminded us of our special wedding day 11 years ago, but also reconnected us to who we are as a couple, not just Mommy and Daddy to three bouncing boys.

My hubby...
did a great job of setting the scene on our anniversary eve. He brought Star Gazer Lilies home. The flower he had used to decorate his graduate school apartment when he asked me to marry him. Then he served an orecchiette pasta dish similar to the one a chef in Florence, Italy cooked up for us on our honeymoon. Now there is a story.

The restaurant was near the David and we enjoyed our meal so much we came back to enjoy lunch at the same place the following day. I ordered my favorite orecchiette pasta dish, but was dismayed to find it was different. The manager must have read my bewildered touristica face because he came right over (insert Italian accent) and asked me if anything was the matter. I explained the pasta dish had a different sauce today. To that he exclaimed, "The Chef is crazy people." He whisked my dish away only to return with my favorite sauce of all time. So for the past 11 years when something goes wrong in our kitchen we are known to say to each other, "The chef is crazy people."

Our anniversary weekend continued our italian theme with a reminder of our trip to Murano, Italy. Hubby presented me with a Pandora Murano glass bead for my bracelet. A wonderful reminder of that day, a very cold Christmas day in 1998, when we took a water taxi to the island. I was drawn to the blue style glass and bought many gifts and keepsakes from Murano, all the while freezing from the cold wind, but I didn't care.

We then took our gondola ride in Venice, a present from our friends Chris and Ben. Very romantic, and oh, how young we look.

We also went on a wonderful date night without the kiddos. We had a great time and enjoyed our dinner actually talking to each other with no interruptions or barking dogs. Only this time our ride wasn't a gondola, but a Ford Explorer with a reindeer nose and antlers on the windows.

You may be wondering what I got my hubby for our anniversary. I gave him a watch and not just any watch. As he was looking through the paper work he saw that the watch offers an 11 year warranty, not five, not 10, but 11. Here's to another fun filled 11 years. I hope they don't go quite as fast as the first 11, but I know it will be an adventure, one that will require plenty more date nights.