Our First Anniversary

First Wedding Anniversary

Traditional anniversary gift: Paper
Modern anniversary gift: Plastic/clock
Travel anniversary gift ideas: Travel gift certificate, Airline tickets

For more anniversary ideas check out this website

Husband and Wife: One Year Later

When I read the traditional gift for the first anniversary, I started to think about what kind of gift I could get for my husband to celebrate our first anniversary. Paper? What kind of meaningful paper gift can I get? Although I can write a great romantic and sentimental card, I did not want to get JUST a card as our first anniversary gift. I wanted to get something that would chronicle our first year and would be cherished. But paper? So with some extra thought we both came up with a couple of great gifts that we can cherish for many years to come.

Kris' gift: Jim Brickman tickets

Kris' original gift idea was an annual pass to one of the major theme parks. We are so fortunate to live within a couple of hours of the best theme parks. This seemed to be a great idea at first until we realized how hot it really gets in Florida. A pass good until the end of the year would have been okay if we purchased it earlier in the year when we could have used it while the weather was still cool. As the temperatures get hotter and hotter, the likelihood of using the pass in the next couple months was not very likely.

Jim Brickman in Concert at the Van Wezel

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

The back of the hall faces the bay

He still wanted to get tickets but now we were considering a show either locally or nearby. We have a couple of performing arts halls and forums within a couple of hours. We even have a local theatre nearby. We found a couple of shows of interest including a Jim Brickman concert at the local theatre the Saturday before our anniversary.

We got dressed up and headed down to the local theatre on Saturday evening hoping that tickets were still available. Lucky for us, there were still tickets available for the show. It was a perfect anniversary gift. Jim Brickman talked about celebrating his 15 year anniversary as a recording artist and performer this past Christmas. He talked about how it was much like a wedding anniversary. His music was soft and romantic. It was simply a perfect night.

 

Night Rain by Jim Brickman

The Gift by Jim Brickman

My gift: A Photo Journal

A photo journey of our the good times we have shared

After much thought, I finally decided on a photo journal for an anniversary gift. I knew it was not going to cost much money. I had all the materials (paper of course) in my scrapbooking supplies. I wanted it to make all from paper and by hand. I had some pictures from our first year of marriage as well as pictures from our early days of dating. I organized them into a small "album" which I made using black pages and a brown cover. I used letters and some stickers I had to decorate the album. I was a little worried that Kris would not find it sentimental but when I gave it to him and we looked at it together, he loved every picture and sharing the memories we have made together. We looked at it again while waiting for the concert to start. It was like taking a photo journey through our the last 10 years together. It was a great memory for both of us. He said a few times throughout the night how much he had loved the album and the memories contained in it. We have had fun just looking through it and remembering the good times we have shared.

The inside cover to start the journey

The end of the album but not our journey

The back of the album

We had a perfect weekend celebrating our first anniversary. We were able to celebrate with some family and friends who had been with us on the day we were married. We went back to the Church where were married and said a prayer or two for the year ahead. We even visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, one of our most favorite places. On the actual day of our anniversary, we went to Mass together and then enjoyed a nice quiet breakfast. It was the perfect way to end our anniversary weekend and celebrate.

Erin go bragh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Easy "key lime" jell-o pie

 It is not very Irish but it is VERY green!

As our first anniversary quickly approaches, we are celebrating the last few first holidays and seasons.

The last of the first holidays we have left to celebrate are St. Patrick's Day and Easter.Our Easter journey began last week with Ash Wednesday and will conclude just after our first anniversary. Even though Easter falls after our first anniversary this year, it will be our first Easter since we were married the week after Easter last year.

The Lent and the Easter season are my favorite times of the year in the Catholic Church.This is the time of the year when we prepare our hearts for our own resurrection into new life. We begin a process of change in order to cleanse us of our old selves and bring to life a new one on Easter morning with Christ's resurrection on the cross. This has always been a struggle for me to rid myself of old habits and old ways of thinking. I have always been very hard-headed as my mother used to say. I often get stuck in a rut in the ways I do things. Sometimes that rut is a good place to be and I can accomplish a lot but sometimes that rut is just that... a rut. I find myself stuck and going nowhere. I want to continue in the ruts that are working and make changes in areas that are not working so well.

Last year's Lenten season was a double season of change for me. It was not only the 40 days to prepare for Easter and the resurrection of Christ but it was also my LAST 40 days as a single woman. It was the hardest season of change for me. I was not only making changes to grow in my faith but I was also making changes in my vocation. I was about to take on a new role and I had to really prepare myself to take on this new role. I did not know what to expect. I just knew I had to prepare. I knew it was going to be the one of the biggest change I was ever going to make in my life. I wanted to be ready. I knew that there was no turning back after we said "I do" so I had to certain that I was ready to take that long walk to meet the man of my dreams. I knew that the journey I was about to go on was not just the one day but a lifetime.

With this and every Lenten season to come as we approach our anniversary, I hope to use this time to continue my preparation for a lifelong journey with Kris. I will strive to cleanse my old self and my old habits in order to be a new wife on Easter morning and on our anniversary.

First Holidays

One of the difficult things to figure out during marriage is how to divide our time between both families for the holidays. There are a couple of really big holidays during the last few months of the year that give us a great opportunity to spend time with family. But it is hard to divide our time between two different families when our family is spread pretty far across Florida. Even harder when our schedule only gives us a day or so off to celebrate holidays with family. Someone has to be at the paper to make sure those after holiday sale ads make it to your driveway Thanksgiving and Christmas morning.

This year Kris was able to get both Thanksgiving day and Christmas day off from work. With only one day off for the holidays, it was easy to decide where to go for the holidays. All of Kris' family lives within 20 minutes of one another and only about 45 minutes from us. Having just one day off gives us a perfect chance to spend time with them and be able to make it home all in the same day. The hard part is with only one day off we cannot make it to see both sides of the family. Since my family is spread across three different parts of the state more than an hour away from us, it is more difficult to visit each of them. We try to visit them all when we have a day or two off but that does not happen very often.

Unfortunately, our Thanksgiving plans did not go as well as we planned. A few unexpected events changed our family plans for Thanksgiving but we still managed to spend a little time with Kris' parents as well as his sister and her family. We were happy to see the kids and how much they had grown over the last year.

Annika - age 3

Minnie Annika

Twins Ella & Owen - age 9 months

Ella - age 9 months

Owen - age 9 months

We spent our first Christmas with Kris' family.The day started off with cookies and punch at Mom and Dad's to open our Christmas gifts. We were happy to receive many gifts to add to our display in our china cabinet. One of my favorite gifts was a picture Dad painted of our first house on a stained piece of wood. I was so surprised to see it that it almost made me cry. Dad even put our name and address on the corner. It matches well with the wooden plates Kris received of the homes that the family lived in during his childhood. It is a very touching piece and for now it completes our set of paintings of the homes. For dinner, we went over to Hannah and Olli's for a real German dinner. We enjoyed a perfectly cooked pot roast with a delicious sauce, mashed and scalloped potatoes, sweet potato and carrot casserole, and a salad. After all that food, we were so full there was no room for dessert. It was nice to spend with friends and family this Christmas. We got to see how much Ella and Owen have grown since we had seen them last just a month before. Both babies were able to crawl around. They had fun with their new toys but had even more fun with the the balls of wrapping paper. I am so amazed how tall Annika is getting. At almost 4 years of age, she stands almost half as tall as me. Pretty soon I will be looking down at her.

The painting of our first home

Aunt Eileen was making animal noises with Annika

Uncle Kris and Owen

Aunt Eileen and Owen

Owen was sitting up straight and tall...

...but he loved playing ball with Uncle Kris.

Uncle Kris had a great time too while Ella looked on

Owen thought the wrapping paper was a lot of fun.

Annika was so sad to see us go

The holidays have been great with family. We look forward to next year's holidays and all the fun with the children. We look forward to time spent with both sides of the family next year.