Our 7th Wedding Anniversary

On Monday, as we do every October 17th, we quietly celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

We have a tradition every year where we walk to our favorite little Italian restaurant downtown for a nice dinner and a glass of wine, and of course, always save room for dessert. This year we remembered we actually had a gift certificate to our favorite restaurant (!) which made it even better. It would be like someone is actually taking us out for dinner on our anniversary!

We dropped the kids off at PJ’s mom’s house and showered and got dressed, and planned to start walking downtown. As we were leaving, we looked in the spot where the gift certificate has been for over a year, only to find that it wasn’t there at all. PJ had cleaned off our office desk the weekend before and apparently moved it somewhere he couldn’t remember, so afters rummaging around the house for 15 minutes trying to find it, we declared defeat and gave up. We didn’t have a babysitter all night long!

PJ then suggested, since we don’t have any obligation to go anywhere anymore, that we go to our other favorite Italian restaurant just 15 miles down the road in the next town. Ding ding ding!! Yes! I told him, that sounds perfect. It’s a little more upscale with a slightly bigger menu, and it just sounded better all around, so we made the drive and settled in at our table.

I tried something new, while PJ got his tried and true favorite. We split an appetizer and I ordered a glass of chardonnay while he got a glass of Prosecco. It was so nice to just sit and relax for an hour, PJ looking so handsome in the seat across from me. We talked about what we hope the next seven years look like and our hopes and dreams for the future. We both agreed that the farm plays a big role in our future as a family. How nice it is to be on the same page on most things (still trying to convince him for us to tile the entire kitchen, but that’s a discussion for another day).

After dinner, we walked next door to a donut shop. At first I said “just to look” but PJ made the point that “it’s only our anniversary once a year”. So we each picked out to donuts and ate them in the square, feeling a slight chill as the wind blew to remind us that fall is in full force in East Tennessee. After donuts, we drove through one of our favorite neighborhoods and looked at all the new, gorgeous homes that remind us of Alys Beach in Florida. And then we headed back home to pick up the kids and get everyone in bed for the night.

It was a lovely evening spent with the love of my life, celebrating our life together as men, as husbands, and as fathers. It’s hard to believe we’ve been together for 12 years, because it’s sometimes hard to even remember my life before PJ, before I came out, but at the same time it feels like no time at all has passed since I was 19 and he was 24. I am forever grateful for this man and how much he’s shaped my life and the person I am today. I can’t imagine raising kids and sharing a name with anyone else.

What a wonderful adventure it is loving him.