Love is a funny thing. Whether you eventually grow into it, or it just hits you in the head, love will always hurt at times. No matter how, where or who you are, you will experience love, and your experience can certainly go either way. When I took a look at the divorce rate in this country as the fifth year anniversary of my wife and I was coming up I remembered how thankful I really was. The passion was as strong as ever, the desire to be with each other grew even more after the marriage, and everything was always in the right place in my heart. While families are being torn apart, fighting over money and custody, I am at home with my wife every night of the week happier then ever. The opportunity to tell the woman of my life just how much I love her and how much she means to me every day is more then I could ever ask for. She certainly is all I will ever need to die a happy man.
With our fifth year anniversary on the way I was in trouble. Literally, I was in panic mode every day and every night. Suddenly it felt as though all my creativity has failed me and for the first time ever I really had no idea what to do. Vacations were too expensive for our family to afford, yet a simple dinner seemed so dull. Whenever a husband feels he has lost creativity he will take his wife out to dinner because it cannot fail. While the night is not that special as half the people around you are also on their anniversary, it will at least give the two of you the chance to dress up and sit around talking. Dullness at its finest if you ask me. I did not want to be one of those husbands. I love my wife so much and I cannot find an idea in my head that will make her know that and feel special? It was not going to happen. So what did I do? Well, with a week to go I decided to do what no man should ever try for safety’s sake! I did the impossible. I tried learning how to cook.
I would like to mention upfront that I have never cooked before in my life. I could barely make myself scrambled eggs, as my wife usually laughed at me while I was fighting off the jumping oil in the pan. Learning to cook was going to be difficult. I went out to the store and started off by picking out her favorite ingredients. With no recipes in hand I dumped packages of parmesan cheese, grilled chicken, her favorite Italian sauce, hash browns, and Betty Crocker (a life saver by the way) cake mix. As I got home my wife called and told me she’d be back in about ten minutes. I quickly stashed away all the items in the basement and greeted her with a kiss as if everything was fine and I haven’t been driving myself crazy the whole day over our anniversary.
As our special day came, something extraordinary had happened. My wife called in and told me she had to work later then expected that day. She was really sorry and said she’d only be an hour late. While trying to act disappointed I actually had a smile on my face as this gave me more time to prepare. Before the actual cooking took place I needed to prepare some special touches. I rushed out to the video store and rented the first love movie I have ever heard her mention. To this day I still am not sure what we watched, but I pretended to like it and although she knew that was not so, she was still appreciative. Afterwards I found a fancy kitchen place that had dinner party items. I bought two fancy cherry-scented candles that were shaped like hearts as well as some confetti hearts and bath bubbles later on. On my way back I stopped off for a nice tablecloth and a new silverware set (ours was extremely old). As I got home and set the table, dimmed the lights and put on her favorite love song, it was time to cook.
I tried to be a simple as possible. Betty Crocker should really be named “Cake for Dummies” as it was ridiculously easy and I had no problem finding where the stove switch was either. My first time around with the hash browns and chicken did not go so well. I forgot you actually needed oil on the pans and I ended up burning both the dishes in a matter of ten minutes. Being the prepared type however, I bought plenty of extras in case I ruined the first. “You learn from your mistakes” is a fantastic saying. I grilled the chicken, the topped it off with parmesan cheese which melted perfectly. I left it on the stove longer to give the cheese the browning look as well. The hash browns were a little bit burned but I doubt my wife minded. The cake came out as well as any and everything was set about ten minutes before she came home from work.
We had a fantastic dinner, many wonderful conversations, and a nice relaxing bubble bath afterwards. This anniversary really was not too creative or even planned out for that matter, but my wife still loved it. I was never a man that decided to buy his wife expensive diamonds for an anniversary. First off our family never had the money, and secondly, I do not believe in buying something just to get it over with. Anniversaries are special. They make you remember how long you’ve been together, and just how much your partner has done and sacrificed for you. This truly was a fantastic anniversary for us, and there were many more to come.
