The Honeymoon is OVER!

We celebrated our first anniversary last night and decided that since we are living at the parents that we should live it up...aka...get out of my room at my parents' house for a night;) Don't get me wrong...I love my parents house but I will also use any excuse that I can to stay at the Skirvin downtown and this, my friend, was it!! It is a fantastic old hotel with tons of charm and history that I would recommend to anyone in a heartbeat. All you need to do is find an occasion like we did and take advantage!

After getting settled in and exploring the hotel a bit we sat in the Red Piano Lounge at the hotel where a pianist and vocalist were about to start a set. One song into the set we were so surprised when they sang our first dance song! You could not have planned a better start to the evening. After listening to them play for a bit we then walked to our dinner reservations in bricktown from the hotel and enjoyed a delicious dinner at The Mantel, complete with sorbet between courses and wine from the area in Italy where Romeo and Juliet lived. Sadly though, we opted for the creme brule trio (vanilla, chocolate and caramel) over the top of our wedding cake. We had abandoned that first wedding anniversary tradition long ago. I do not think that cake top even made it through June last year before getting thawed and gobbled up. It was too yummy to resist and I knew that it would not be the same one year later. One tradition that I had been looking forward to though was the start of anniversary gifts with this year being paper themed. I think that being paper forces you to get creative and we both rose to the occasion! I am a traditional kind of gal and stick to the classic set of anniversary gifts. I think that the "modern" list of anniversary gifts was established because of increasing divorce rates so that you get all of the good gifts before the marriage goes kaput. For example, in the modern list the diamond anniversary is the 10th whereas in the traditional list it is the 60th. I will have none of that! Some things are worth waiting for in my book and I am just thrilled with paper right now. Leo gave me an artistic rendition of my favorite photograph of us from when we hiked the Grand Canyon (rim to rim baby!) and I gave him a painting of our first house together. We both loved them!

This morning at breakfast at the hotel the waitress asked if we were celebrating anything. Leo told her that it was our anniversary to which she responded, "Hmmm..... Let me see.... Dimples are deep.... Smile is big.... It's gotta be your first honey!" I am just so delighted that we continue to make each other smile so much and hopefully will for years to come.

Here is to celebrating the first of many years together... Cheers!