CRYSTAL CLEAR...

Louis and I celebrated our 15th anniversary last week.  The Crystal Anniversary (who makes these designations?)  Anyway, I read that the 15th anniversary is a huge landmark for a marriage so it should be properly celebrated.

Well, I think any anniversary should be properly celebrated, so I suggested to Louis that we extend it out for a few days.  I was on a three-day trip laying over in Orlando or Hartford or somewhere on the actual day--May 12th.   But as soon as I got home the following day, Friday the 13th, we began our little commemoration.

We went to the temple.  It was our Windsor Stake day with a chapel meeting at 4 pm which we were able to attend before the 4:30 session.  After that was over we just mosied on home picking up some fast food along the way since we had eaten before we went into the temple.

On Saturday Louis spent the day at the temple as per his usual assignment.  I took Burgandy shopping for some new duds to complement her new position at Lennar Homes.  Her first assignment was to go to Califoronia for training for two days.  Couldn't let her go in raggedy old Levis and a stretched out T-shirt.  Pulled out all the stops and bought some really nice "business casual" attire to send her off in style. 

When Louis got home from the temple Saturday evening, we went to see The Jungle Book.  I had never seen the cartoon version from start to finish and didn't really know the story line, but I had always liked the songs.  The movie was great!  I bawled. I was in awe.  And I thought Mowgli looked JUST EXACTLY like the cartoon boy.  He was outstanding!  I don't know how he did all that running through a jungle.  One of the girls recently graduated from Primary was there with her older sister.  Dani opted for them to sit by us.  (She has always come up to me with a big hug ever since I was sustainded as Primary president.  It makes me feel good that someone in there recogonizes me.)

After Church on Sunday we went to downtown Denver to the Marriott City Center Hotel for the night.  It was fun to drive around the city and look at how things had changed.  And it was really lots more fun because the traffic was light and there weren't a lot of people and cars behind us pushing us along when we wanted to take a minute to look a second glance at something.  We also drove over to Aurora after we ate.  Louis wanted to see Fitzsimmons Hospital--now the Anshutz University of Colorado campus--because they have torn a lot of the buildings down in anticipation of the new VA hospital facility which is still being built.  It is no longer an Army facility, but the "guard shack" at the entrance was still there.  However, the building which was his barracks while he was recouperating was gone.  

All these days it had been raining.  When we got up on Monday morning, the weather was no different.  But we didn't let that stop us.  We had planned to take the new light rail from Union Station out to DIA.  It was fun!  We got a day pass which included round trip fare and jump on and off wherever along the way until 3am the next morning.  We had orginally planned to eat at Elway's Steak House at DIA.  But we'd had such a filling hamburger supper at BJ's the night before, we opted for KFC on the A concourse.  

Took pictures of each other in front of the "Wish you were here signs" at DIA and then rode the train back to Union Station.  The rest of the afternoon Louis took me from thrift store to antique store to thrift store  then to the Zoo where I found my anniversary present--another elephant to add to my ever growing collection!  Surprise, surprise!  And for Louis?  He got M&M's.  Just what he likes, too.  

Might seem like dumb presents or not in keeping with a "crystal" attainment, but we each got something we really like.  Spend the money on the fun.  Didn't need the fancy dinner party with crystal appointments that was indicated as "must have" for a proper celebration.   Then it was home to spend a cozy evening out of the rain.  

Rated five stars by me!  *****  I think Louis gave it the same rating.

So, there you have the story of our drawn-out celebration for a note-worthy milestone.  It has been an interesting 15 years as we have tried to meld two completely different lives--and lifestyles--into a fairly compatible unit.  Lots more challenging than starting out young without the trappings of a previous marriage to get in the way now and then.  But think of what we've learned....patience, acceptance, comopromise but mostly not to kill each other.  HAHAHHA!

Maybe we'll do things up a little fancier for our "Sweet Sixteen" next May 12th.  Who knows, we may have a real need for silver hollowware by then.

Anyone out there have a coffee pot for our next anniversary celebration?