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Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Anniversary "Non-Gift"

June 9th was the Big Giraffe's and my anniversary. We've been married for eight years! June has always been a crazy month for us. We joke it's like other people's Decembers. In addition to our anniversary, it's also his birthday, our younger son's birthday and Father's Day. That doesn't even take into account any graduations or end of the year school parties or even any early summer day trips.

The result of all of this is that after our first anniversary we decided that we weren't going to exchange anniversary gifts. For the most part, I've been OK with this decision, but I have to confess every once in a while it bothers me. I suggested to the Big Giraffe that maybe this year we could get each other something that has to do with us. Something that we could use together. Get your mind out of the gutter! I liked the idea of getting two nice place settings for romantic dinners. The Big Giraffe liked that too. Seeing as June is our busy month though, we just didn't get around to it.

Our anniversary day came and we had decided to go out for dinner at this amazing tappas place. As I got into the car, I noticed a gift bag poking out from under the passenger seat. The Big Giraffe casually asked me if I would mind grabbing it. I pulled it out and saw that there was a 8x10 picture frame inside of it. I pulled it out and stared in horror.

Inside was a photomontage of me from my last triathlon. One picture for each sport and one after I had completed the whole thing. Rat's nest of a hair from swim cap. Red face from all three sports. Sweating like crazy. Did I mention that triathlon suits are not flattering on anyone? Picture wearing a giant magnifying glass over your stomach for all to see. The only thing less flattering would have been a photomontage of myself just waking up every morning for four days. Oh stop judging me! Can't stop? I'll tell your partner to do an 8x10 of you at the gym for four days. That's what I thought.

I was completely taken by surprise. The Big Giraffe was really pleased with himself. I thought it was a gag gift. Yeah, it wasn't. He really thought it was awesome. He thought I looked great. Isn't love great?

I do have to say that this picture has provided hours of amusement because it is just so funny. We laughed about it in the car and we really laughed about it after I had a few glasses of sangria. We got another round of laughter from the sitter and and another on a playdate yesterday and another when I got together with my friends. While I'm not endorsing this gift by any means, the Big Giraffe is right when he said that the point of a gift is to enjoy it and he has never seen me laugh so much. (Pause here as I'm sure that the Big Giraffe printing out this post and highlighting the part where I said he was right!)

I did tell him that I had to draw the line at one gift. I've been thinking for a couple years now about getting a Doggie Dooley system, particularly now that we have a swing set and I'm cleaning up after the dog one to two times a day. The Big Giraffe asked me if it would make me happy. He then asked if it was metal. I knew where he was going with this. At one point I had said something about good anniversary gifts being sparkly. No, I do think a metal Doggie Dooley sh*t container would make a good gift. In fact that to me sounds like next June 9th there wouldn't be much of a celebration!

In all seriouness, the Big Giraffe made the photomontage for me because he's really proud of me and thought I looked great. Really and truly you can't get a better anniversary gift than that.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: There is some truth to the saying "love makes you blind".

Labels: Humor (at least Attempted)

posted by Alex Elliot @ 6:54 AM 6 comments

6 Comments:

At 6/11/2009 8:43 PM, Heather said…

That really is very sweet, but yeah. Don't give me photos of myself exercising. It will never be pretty.
At 6/14/2009 2:22 PM, Jen of A2eatwrite said…

This is so funny, Alex. Our anniversary is ALSO June 9th. It was our 19th. We also don't do the gift thing, although we do cards. D gave me flowers this year, which was a sweet surprise. And it is ALSO his b'day in June, Father's Day, end-of-school stuff, etc., so we sort of get swamped in June.

I can totally see D doing the same thing the Big Giraffe did, and I think it's completely awesome that he loves you for all the power you're giving yourself for the sport and that he thinks you're beautiful doing it (and all the time). Treasure it, no matter how it looks. Bravo for the clueless, but sweet, guys!
At 6/17/2009 3:21 PM, Andrea Proulx said…

Aww, he really tried! It's funny when men think we look gorgeous when we feel the worse for wear.

By the way, where does one get Tappas?
At 6/19/2009 10:31 PM, Kami's Khlopchyk said…

Man, I can see where you are coming from and where he was coming from! Glad you guys can laugh about it, that's really what it's about isn't it?

Happy 8th Anniversary!

Ps I bet he's right, I bet you do look great, red face and unflattering tri suit and all!
At 6/25/2009 6:22 AM, Sally HP said…

I think I'll make a montage of myself in the different stages of labor, because it's SO flattering...even if an event inspires pride, the boys have to know there is a line where we just don't like how we look :)
At 6/29/2009 8:16 AM, Goofball said…

that's so sweet though!
somehow I always end up with mostly after-dive pictures with my hair uncombed, tangled in all directions. I got used to them, I love that wild look now :p, much more than pictures where I'm dressed up for a party. Brushing your hair so often fails and does not end up the way you'd want at all....but messy hair never fails on you!

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 5 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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