While it may seem ideal to have big anniversary trips or do amazing and incredible things to celebrate your anniversary; that isn’t always possible. I know, I see my Facebook friends posting all the time about exotic and amazing places they are going on vacation to or celebrating their anniversaries. It would be so much fun to do and go to the places they are going!
Now, I’m not complaining. We have prioritized to go into debt as little as possible and currently we have the most debt that we have had in a long time because of our daughter’s wedding last fall. Also, not complaining about that, it was totally worth every penny!!!
Our priorities also include me staying home with the girls and while they are almost all grown; I still have a teen and we are homeschooling. So, we have never had a second income.
Another priority has been to help our kids develop their talents and interests. So, our girls have always been in gymnastics, piano, art lessons, etc. I love to see my kids enjoy their talents and succeed at the things they are doing! Childhood is a time for learning and developing talents and interests.
When you have small children
There were times when our girls were small that it was hard to have even a special night out, let alone being able to go away anywhere! We had a hard time finding a babysitter we trusted and felt good about leaving them with. Once, we thought we had one we could trust, but after we walked through the door we heard her yelling at our girls.
We took the girls with us to a nice place to eat, but still family friendly. Viewing our anniversary as the start of our family and making it a celebration of our family with the focus being on mommy and daddy got married on this day helped to still make it special. It also helped our girls to understand that marriage is special and should be celebrated.
Some years we would do our own fancy dinner at home. Either something I wanted to make or take out. Light candles, nice table cloth, flowers, etc. After the kids would go to bed we would watch a movie and cuddle. No kids wanting to get in-between or needing something. (Except for when our 6 year old was sleep walking and needed to be led back to her room.)
We didn’t have a big fancy honeymoon, either. We stayed at a condo, went to the zoo, went bowling and to a movie. So, on anniversaries when we couldn’t get a babysitter, we would take our kids to do one of those activities with us. We always figured that there will be many years when we can do all of that other stuff and not worry about babysitters.
Our Cake Tradition
This was 2003, before I was diagnosed with celiac. I was pretty sick and still trying to recover from my last baby. It was quite the ordeal and you can read more about that here.
We always buy or make a special cake. Before needing to go gluten free, because of celiac disease, we would order a white cake with raspberry filling from the bakery; decorated in our wedding colors. Just like our original wedding cake. Then, we would take a picture of us cutting it with our knife and serving set from our wedding. This tradition was born out of proving to my mother that we would indeed use that set more than once!
With being gluten free we have altered the cake and sometimes it is similar to our wedding cake and other times, like this year, completely different. This has been a great tradition to have an anniversary cake every year! It is also a great way to involve the kids and remind them that marriage is special and to be celebrated! Our wedding wasn’t just about the two of us, it was the start of our family!
This years anniversary with a cake I made from a recipe posted by Sugar Hero.
I made a substitution in the brownie layer. I made gluten free brownies using Gluten-Free Heaven’s Brownie Mix. With the full quantity of the mousse, I knew it wouldn’t all fit in my spring-form pan, so I held back about a cup of each mousse layer.
A Night or Two Away
The Phantom’s Lair at Lions Gate Manor in Lava Hot Springs. They have done such a nice job with this room! It includes a mirror the phantom magically appears in, a stair case and secret passage, as well as box #5 to sit and watch Phantom of the Opera in.
The most important part of celebrating your anniversary is who you are with! This is a great time to focus on re-connecting and focusing on one another. It doesn’t have to be somewhere fancy or exotic.
Besides money being a factor in what we can do, so is time. Especially as the girls have gotten older. There are gymnastic meets to go to, other activities they are involved in, hubby’s work and deadlines, responsibilities with the support group I run, and so many other things that sometimes get in the way of a “proper” celebration! I know you have been there!
It’s nice to be able to squeak in a night or two away to a local Bed and Breakfast or nice hotel! I love the ones with theme rooms.
It’s nice to get away and just focus on one another without having to drive someone somewhere, get something for someone, everyone wanting attention, and hubby’s work getting in the way!
Local Get Aways
We often take for granted where we live. People will come here from all over the world to do the things we might sometimes do or think we will get around to doing but it’s right here; we don’t have to do it right now and so we never do it!
This week we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary and this is what we did! We spent the day in Salt Lake City and still there was soooo much more we could have done! We focused our day on Temple Square; partly because we were married in the Salt Lake City Temple. Also, the museum and genealogy buildings have been remodeled and they have added a lot of new things that we haven’t gotten around to seeing.
On our way to Temple Square we stopped at a container store because I needed something better than Walmart products! I found some great things for my craft stuff to go in to! Being an adult, boring weird stuff is often fun! I love the container store! Though I believe anything can be fun if you are with the right person.
Across from Temple Square is a great outdoor mall called City Creek! It was fun to window shop and look for new sheets for our bed. We often get new sheets on our anniversary.
It was relaxing and fun to walk hand in hand, talking, and flirting with one another. I can’t remember the last time we had such a fun and relaxing day together!
Anniversary selfie!
Celebrating with kids
Zoo
Bowling
Miniature golf
Movie
Dinner to a nice family restaurant
Nice dinner at home
Fancy dessert
Take out
Movie at home after kids are in bed and cuddling
Picnic
Play games together
Other Anniversary Ideas:
Sight-see your area- be a tourist in your own backyard (town/state)
Visit the Big city- near you
National parks
Hiking
Picnic- Include some sparkling cider and fancy looking glasses
Movie night
Special dinner
Bed and breakfast
Theme room bed and breakfast
Concert
Play/musical
Weekend trip- together- without kids
Long drive
Paint night
Couples massages
Give one another massages
Be creative! What do the 2 of you like to do? What are your interests?
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