A year of wedded bliss

Today, C and I have been married one year. 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days. Many hours. Lots of minutes.

To be honest, to me, time has flown. It seems only yesterday I was cramming my gigantic train into the truck (our wedding car was a F150) and trying to calm myself before walking down the aisle.

Our wedding celebrant sent us a card, isn't that nice?

I have little to say about the institution of marriage that hasn't already been said. Except perhaps that it is quite different on the inside than it appears on the outside. Same goes for long-term relationships: whether you're married or not, it's always about love and compromise. The love part gets tested by the compromise part. I asked hubby if he had any wisdom to share about marriage for this blog post and he shrugged and grunted. So there you go.

For our anniversary I tossed up going out to a fancy dinner. Then I realised that would be something C wasn't into but I was. So in the end I settled on a movie date - but a posh one.

So Gold Class it was. I must admit the Gold Class lounge was pretty intimidating - all top shelf alcohol and dim lights. There were couples sharing bottles of Champagne. But then some more folks showed up in shorts and thongs so I relaxed a bit. After all, if you can buy a ticket to it, it's not that an exclusive club is it?

We saw the new Die Hard movie. It was pretty good. I thought the action sequences were some next-level stuff. And the fact we could enjoy it from the comfort of big puffy armchairs and have a waiter being us fries with truffle aioli made it just that much more enjoyable!

What was your best date ever? Do you celebrate anniversaries?

Do anniversaries matter?

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This evening I was languidly lazing on our over-sized couch, flipping through one of my birthday presents - Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals. I saw a likely feast that was a) in my skill range b) didn't require a food processor c) didn't have exotic ingredients and most importantly d) might be something my other half would eat.

I showed it to C and asked him if he'd eat that. He asked what yorkies were and I explained they are like dumpling things. He said yes. I said perhaps I could make it for our anniversary...?

He gave me a strange look. Then he said,

"Baby, our anniversary was on Friday."

"What? It's on the 20th though! What's the date today?"

"The 22nd."

I immediately started tearing up and apologising. He just smiled and ruffled my hair. Told me it was alright. Admitted he'd thought about it.

"But why didn't you say anything! It's our five years!" I wailed.

He said he didn't realise about the five years part, but again said it didn't really matter that I'd forgotten.

I pulled myself together and realised the only person upset in this conversation was me. He really didn't mind. He wasn't fussed that we hadn't gone out, or cooked a special dinner, or given each other gifts.

Later, when I shared this story with Twitter, I realised that we will have a new anniversary soon - not the date of our first date, but of our wedding. Wow.

So is it just my beloved partner or do men, as a rule, not really care that much about anniversaries? Or is it just important to some people more than others, whatever their gender? Why do we celebrate yearly milestones like birthdays and anniversaries? Is it a way of saying "hey, congratulations, another year has gone by!" - or do we just like an excuse to give and get more presents?