10 years...10 presents

The Golfer and I celebrated 10 years of marriage last week. We headed up the coast to spend three days in Carmel. Alone. Together. It was lovely.

We did what most couples do when they hit a milestone. We talked about everything that has happened in those ten years: who had died since our wedding (a little morbid), where we thought we'd be in another ten years (the Cheese will be graduating from high school and the Monkey will be learning how to drive. Scary!) and if there was anything that we would have changed about the last ten years (nothing!) You know, the usual anniversary talk.

We drank good wine, ate delicious food, and basked in the glory of being in such a beautiful place.

:: the view from our room ::

Carmel is such a beautiful piece of the world. I feel blessed that we live in driving distance. We shopped a little, ate more great food, and even squeezed in a little culture by visiting the Carmel Mission. Appropriately, we got to tour in between two of the weddings that were being held at the mission that day.


But the best part of the anniversary (any special occasion for that matter!) were the presents. I'll admit, I expected something. What woman wouldn't! I just didn't expect to get 10 somethings!

When I came out of the shower one morning, there on the bed were 10 presents. Now, my first reaction at seeing all of this even surprised me, "You spent too much!" Especially since we are nearing the end of our 3 month long backyard renovation (more on that later.) But the Golfer just smiled and said, "Open then." I'm not a woman to argue, so I did.




At first the presents didn't make much sense. A beautiful painting of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, a silk scarf, a copper pot. I mean they were all lovely, but seemed...well...strange. He just kept telling me that he would explain it all when I was done opening. And he did.

Each gift was for each year of marriage. The gifts following the traditional anniversary gift giving guide. So he had given me something for each year of our marriage.

1st--Paper: a set of three notepads
2nd--Cotton: an organic cotton t-shirt from Whole Foods
3rd--Glass (the modern version): a glass vase
4th--Silk: an orange silk scarf
5th--Wood: a wooden painting of the San Juan Capistrano Mission (he looked but they didn't have the Carmel Mission, but I so loved that he tried.)
6th--Iron: two hands made of iron
7th--Copper: a decorative copper pot
8th--Bronze: a necklace made of bronze
9th--Pottery: a cute box made of pottery
10th--Tin: a necklace made of tin

As random as they first all seemed, they are the best 10 presents that anyone has ever given me. What I love when I receive a gift, more than anything, is knowing that that person put a lot of time, thought, and effort into the gift. That is truly what made the 10 gifts so special.

All I could do was hug him, try not to cry, and say, "You really love me."

To which of course he said, "I do."

Which is exactly what he said when we got married 10 years ago.