really? it's not wood?

For our first wedding anniversary, we did the traditional ”paper” gift theme.

I made Tim a scrapbook of old emails and tickets and little keepsakes we accumulated over the years.  I thought it was so unique…so different…

 

Ok so…TINY confession: technically… I never FINISHED it…I was supposed to get metal rings instead of ribbon to bind it together…

Which Tim reminded me of the other day when SOMEHOW his gift from A YEAR AGO came up.  He was all, “Babe, aren’t you supposed to FINISH MY GIFT?  I mean, I love it and all but you know, you aren’t done yet…with MY GIFT.”

Me: “What year is metal?  Year seven?”

I mean, he has every reason to complain, because he blew my little scrapbook right out of the water.

What I thought was THE PERFECT GIFT, with sweet memories plastered everywhere….an idea I thought was SO CREATIVE and thoughtful…and BAM! 

My gift exploded. 

Right there on the spot.  Realized it wasn’t up to snuff and figured the better option was to create a dramatic scene rather than sit on a counter collecting dust, with comments like, “stupid, unfinished GIFT…” being thrown its direction.

Because of this:

I opened it…thinking there was NO WAY Tim could out-do me.

A CD?  REALLY?  A CD??…that’s not even PAPER.

Then I opened the case and see a pair of tickets laying on a CD.

A pair of tickets to my most favorite band. EVER.

I shot off my chair and started running around and jumping up and down and then came back to reality and took a second look at the CD, making sure I wasn’t imagining things.

And I realized something was amiss.  Something wasn’t QUITE right.

Then I see it.

It wasn’t the actual CD or CD cover or even the BACK of the CD.

No…that’d be too boring..too obvious…too simple….

So, Tim MADE ON HIS OWN.

JUST. FOR. ME.

I looked up at him all, “isn’t this the kind of stuff you READ about in all those magazines and books but it never really happens??  Who did this??”

Just Tim.  He thought of it all by himself.

And boy was he BEAMING.  Puffing out his chest like a proud peacock.  He just smiled and said “Happy Anniversary.”

Flash forward to this year…our impending anniversary.

I refused to be out-gifted…so we decided to purchase a gift together (mentioned here).

Now, I have to stop and say first that Tim and I LOVE tradition.

We like to follow it.  We like to make our own.  We like  to do things IN ORDER.

ACCORDING TO TRADITION.

Which is why we purchased the dresser.  Because year two was wood.

We were certain.  We looked it up.  WE RESEARCHED.  We triple-checked.

And last night, I was curious as to what year three would bring…since I’d have to start planning early…come up with something that would out-shine anything Tim could possibly conjure up.

So, Tim starts googling traditional wedding gifts and in the process of doing so, stops.  His eyes get wide…and he looks up at me.

I’m all, “WHAT?!?  SAY SOMETHING.  WHAT?!”

Tim: “Well…. year three is leather…”

Me: “And this realization resulted in THAT LOOK?  I don’t think so.  What?”

He hesitates…almost as if he’s trying to decide between the truth or a little white lie…

Tim: “Year two is cotton.”

Me: “What?!?! Noooo..it’s WOOD!  We checked!”

Tim: “Year five is wood.”

I sat there and stared at him.  How could we have missed that?  Mixed up year two and five?  They aren’t even in succession.

Me: “Well, we put COTTON in the wood.  Does that count?”

Tim: “Umm….sure, sweetheart. That counts.  What about year five?”

I just shrugged.

Now we’re all screwed up.  Somehow we’re going to have to remember year five is now COTTON instead of WOOD.

And we already have a hard enough time remembering what the other person said five minutes ago.

Damn.