An Anniversary Gift, One Year Late

I gave my husband his 15th anniversary present today. Nevermind that it is our 16th anniversary. The present was imagined and intended for the 15th; it just took me over a year to get around to making it. The gift is a photo book of us - pictures of us from the earliest of dates to as recent as last month and everything in between. It spans 23 years - half his life and more than half of mine. This is where the book started.

At a sorority formal in 1987. He still makes me smile like that.

We have always taken self-portraits of us together. You know, lean our heads together and one of us holds out the camera pointing back at us to snap a shot. So most of the pictures aren't that flattering. But we're always smiling. There are several, better pictures of us taken by others. But I made sure to get as many of the self-portraits in as possible, even the really bad ones. Those are our private moments, in the midst of a crowd or surrounded by our children. We take a brief moment to capture just us.

I also included several images of us individually, usually taken by the other. These are the shots where one is looking at the other and seeing something that no one else sees. You can't capture that on film but we always try.

A photo book like this is a great gift for a nice round anniversary like the 15th. Normally I would be annoyed that I didn't get it made and given last year. But I am happy that it worked out this way. The 16th has been a challenging year for us with lots of new life surprises and decisions. But we've come through closer and we head into our 17th legal year with high hopes and strong love and a book that documents our life and love through the years. I'm not sure we would have appreciated the book quite as much last year.

Happy Anniversary to us!