Nine Happy Years

Michael and I just celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary.  (And by "just" I mean two busy months ago, oh well.)  We have held up the tradition every year of giving each other the traditional wedding gifts.  Mainly this originated because I found this great book, The Bride's Book, before we were married and it had the list of gifts in the back.  It has been fun to think up creative gifts for each other, as well as fill in the blanks through the years. 

This year the suggested gift was willow.  What a weird category.  The only thing we could think of at first that was made from willow was a basket, and that seemed pretty boring.  Maybe if we owned a house we could have planted a willow tree, but I'm sure we couldn't fit one on our apartment balcony. 

Then I was stuck by inspiration when I was at The Tattered Cover in downtown Denver with Colleen and Katie.  One of Michael's favorite books is The Wind and the Willows.  I knew we already owned 2 copies of the book, so it seemed redundant to buy another.  However, I did find a DVD version of the old TV show.  I didn't even know that the show existed.  So this was a perfect find. 

Michael and I have watched a little bit of it and it's quite amusing.  Michael loves it whenever woodland creatures dress up in proper attire and speak in British accents, so it was really a perfect gift.  However, as great a gift that it was to give, it could not compare with the AWESOME present that Michael gave me.  He found a giant metal willow tree to hang on the wall. 

I love it!

We hung it up in our bedroom.  Our apartment is quite cutely decorated but the bedroom walls were pretty boring.  Now I think it looks so fun in there. 

Yay for fun presents and nine happy years.

Amusement



Here is one of the many reasons I love my husband: he makes me laugh all the time.  He always says things that are completely unexpected and amusing.  For example, we were on a hike in the foothills the other day.  He had stopped to take a photo of a butterfly on a flower. (I had stopped to catch my breath.)  We were both watching the butterfly in hopes that he would come on the other side of the flower so that Michael could get a better shot.  Not wanting to cooperate, the butterfly flew into the air where it was joined by another, smaller butterfly.  As I was thinking in my head, "Oh look, the butterflies are friends,"  Michael yells out, "BUTTERFLY FIGHT!"  and then continues on with the hike.  And that is one of the amusing Michael moments that keep me entertained on a regular basis.