full

As I mentioned in yesterday’s yarn along post, Dan and I celebrated our anniversary on Tuesday. Celebrate might be a bit generous as the day did not go quite as peacefully as we’d have hoped.

The temperature dropped drastically, the kids were too cold to play outside, rain threatened and then began falling. A runny nose appeared, a sweet one was unhappy, the new school year loomed (along with the removal of the kids’ new neighbourhood friends). The bathroom was muddy, the living room was growing clutter, I’d been at the kitchen with perhaps too much baking gusto, the basement was (erm, is) the catch-all of everything that had no other place.

Kids were grumpy, parents were grumpy. One child proclaimed from a time-out that, “Anniversaries are the worst days ever. They ruin everything!” This led to parental sighs with eyes to the heavens and just a little incredulity that somehow we were to blame.

By the late end of the evening, kids asleep, peach pie and ice cream to the rescue, Dan and I let our muscles relax, our headaches melt away and the stress dissolve. We headed to bed and soon forgot the difficulties of the day in sleep.

This may sound like a sob story. It’s not. I’m merely setting the stage for the best anniversary gift ever.

This morning the kids were anxious for us to take our time coming downstairs. We lingered over baby snuggles and showers until we were invited to the main level.

I couldn’t believe what they had prepared for us.

There was a gift awaiting us on the couch with cards beside them. There were anniversary posters on the walls. The dishwasher had been unloaded. The table was spread with a beautiful breakfast.

I was speechless.

The story was that since our anniversary hadn’t been the greatest they were going to give us a re-do. On top of that we were chastised for not warning beforehand of our anniversary so they would have had time to plan something.

The main collaborators.

It was perfect and wonderful. We are proud parents. Incredibly blessed. And living a life that it is so so full.

Thanks for all the anniversary wishes yesterday – we celebrated with them today.