One year down and a lifetime to go!
This past Saturday, Jansen and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. Leading up to May 19th, Jansen would constantly ask me what we were doing for our anniversary. We had discussed our plans many times, so I figured she was just quizzing me to make sure I remembered the itinerary for the day.
I’ve been told that I tend to forget things. An ugly habit that has revealed itself in year one!
As Jansen and I pulled out of the driveway to start enjoying our anniversary plans, Jansen stopped the car and said, “For some reason the mailman came early today, I’ll pull up to the mailbox and you can grab the mail.”
This didn’t strike me as anything out of the ordinary, so I reached into the mailbox to grab the mail.
To my surprise I found a small orange envelope, addressed to me with a letter inside.
Turns out the mail hadn’t come early.
Jansen had planted the envelope in the mailbox as the first clue to a scavenger hunt that she had planned for me.
When we started “going out” in eighth grade, our very first date was a trip to the movie theater to see Alvin and The Chipmunks. Yes, one of the most romantic movies a guy could take his new girlfriend too. Cut me some slack. We were 13 years old.
To relive our first date, we went to the local movie theater to see Deadpool 2.
DISCLAIMER: Parents, don’t take your kids. Definitely wouldn’t have been able to see that movie when we were 13!
As the credits of the movie began to roll, Jansen told me to check under my seat for the next clue.
There I found another orange envelope that took us to our next destination.
All young ladies dream of sharing their first kiss in the tech ed hallway of their jr. high, right?
You’ll notice that Jansen refers to herself in this letter as xoJansenxo and I had the alias PianoMan. Those were our AIM instant messaging names. Awkward eighth graders didn’t do much talking face to face, so we spent a lot of time communicating through our computers.
Jansen had some trouble getting into the school to plant clue number 3, so she had to settle for hiding the clue behind a sign in the parking lot. Using the highly scientific “hot or cold” method to find the clue, I eventually gathered the envelope and discovered our third and final destination.
Earlier that morning before I had woken up, Jansen packed lunches for us and champagne, so that we could have a picnic outside of our wedding venue.
They had a wedding setup for later that day, so we couldn’t go into the building, but there is a really nice park on the property where we were able to grab a picnic table, eat lunch, and look through our wedding pictures that Jansen had printed out.
It was the perfect morning/afternoon, but I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty
Was this something the husband should’ve planned?
She laughed it off and said no, but maybe in a few years I’ll throw together a scavenger hunt of my own!
The final surprise of the day came when I saw a good friend of mine who’s a photographer and his girlfriend walking towards us with cameras in their hands!
Jansen had asked him if he would come and take some pictures of us to capture our first wedding anniversary.
I left our picnic to lead worship at saturday nights church service and then Jansen and I ended our day with dinner reservations at a local winery.
Jansen and I have always loved writing each other handwritten letters, so I’ll end this post with an excerpt from the letter I gave her on our anniversary.
“Jansen, you’ve challenged me in many ways to be the best husband and man that I can be. I’ve realized how important communication is and I truly appreciate all of the patience you’ve had with me. I’ve made a fair amount of mistakes this year, but let’s get real, I’ll probably make many more down the road. For that reason, NEVER lose that patience! I’m a better man today because I married you one year ago, asked you to marry me two years ago and asked you to be my girlfriend ten years ago.”
Year number two….We’re comin’ for you’!
Keep singing,
Chris
Proverbs 16:9