September Date Night

We opened our two year anniversary gifts early this year. (I was otherwise detained on the actual day) As always, we went for simple in terms of cost - which means I went overboard in terms of effort.

Of the 12 gifts I got him (this looks like overkill but most were oh so insignificant)...

One particular mason jar was my favorite. It had a special gift that was to last all year long.

It held 12 envelops, with each month of the year on the outside. On the inside of each envelop is a specific date night for us. On the first day of each month this year he gets to open a new envelop and we go forth with our date!

Making this gift was tricky because I had to predict how I might feel in February and July. I had to hope I could be in public at a certain point, and expect I could handle large amounts of fun around, well, who knows when?

Making this gift was a blessing because I could say to Neil just before having surgery, not only do I have no doubt I'll live through this (otherwise, crappy gift right?) but I'll also choose to believe I get better and better and we'll have a wonderful year together.

SEPTEMBER 

For our kick off month I did have to set the bar rather low. I knew we would be inside not just one weekend but ALL the weekends (and ALL the weeknights). I wanted to do something not too straining but somewhat unique...

Thus - Movie Nights - we stay in, we make popcorn, we snuggle under covers, and we turn off phones. But these aren't typical movies. Our theme is to go through all of our parents' and step-parents' favorite films. We are still collecting some data, and gathering DVDs, but so far its been a blast! Can you believe we never asked them what they love most?

And so now we have a way to separate special nights from just every other night. We also have a new (and renewed) appreciation for:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

thanks to John

Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark

thanks to Dave

(on deck is)

Moonstruck

thanks to Donna

The Shawshank Redemption

thanks to Paul

(which happens to mine AND Neil's favorite as well. triple whammy!)

and guess who picked

Analyze This...

*if you said Joe T, you win!

So far we've lucked out - everyone has impeccable taste, in our opinion - and our September date nights have been delightful! We can't wait to get everyone's final vote and then we might even cycle through some of the second place movies we were given (Ten Commandments, Seabiscuit, Young Frankenstein, The Dream Team, Back to School and Gone With the Wind)

Do you have a favorite movie we could watch? Have you asked any parents or family members what they love the most? I can't believe I waited so long to ask - now that I watch them knowing how beloved they are, they're even better than I remember!