A Classic Anniversary

Do you remember where you were 7 years ago?  I do, and to give you a hint, it included a long off-white dress, a flowered wreath instead of a veil, and a two tiered carrot cake ;)

(Imagine a lovely wedding picture posted here, as it would be if I could find the CD.  And yes, I can instantly lay my hands on the left over copies of the wedding program, my draft and final notes for the ceremony, all the engagement and wedding cards, the wedding expense spreadsheet, the wedding logistics spreadsheet (who needs to be picked up at the airport when and where they are staying), and the list of what needs to be returned to the caterer, but I have no idea where either of the 2 wedding picture CDs are.)

I can't decide if it feels like the wedding was a month ago or if it feels more like we've always been married (in the good way), but either way it does not feel like it has been seven years.  So many memories from that time, but mostly I remember the unbelievable joy of having the 40 people we were closest with in the whole world all in one place at the same time.  Since then, four of the people in attendence and three of the pets (we had the reception in our home so the pets got to attend too) have passed on, which makes us even more grateful that they were all here together for us.

So many memories ... the rain, the fun, the storms, the joy, the cancelled flights, spending the second night of married life with my stranded Mom, Aunt, Sister, and infant niece sleeping on the living room floor directly above our bed, grilling the hamburgers for the rehearsal dinner gettogether in our garage during a monsoon, Bob helping our friend Chris change his flat tire in a hurricane (I pulled "bride's perogative" and stayed in the car, 20 people were waiting for me at home and my hair was frizzy enough, thank you very much) ... 

Did I mention the rain?  That year it was 50 degrees and raining from January till June.  Amazingly, it stopped raining the minute I walked into my hairdresser's house on the wedding morning and started again the minute we checked into the B&B that night, but not a drop in between (clearly the knitting goddess likes me, or maybe it was Odin giving Bob a wedding "thumbs up", either way, thanks).

With this so on my mind lately, it was with great excitement that I perused the list of Modern Anniversary Gifts that fell into my hands last week.  Seven years seems so momentous, what would be an appropriate gift?  Linens? that would be great, we could use some new towels and sheets!  China?  We have china, but could really use a gravy boat or salt and pepper shakers, they make those in china, right?  What would it be?

Year	Traditional (U.S.)	Traditional (UK)[11]	Modern (U.S.)
1st	Paper	Cotton	Clock
2nd	Cotton	Paper	China
3rd	Leather		Crystal, Glass
4th	Linen, Silk	Fruit and Flowers	Appliances (electrical)
5th	Wood	Wooden	Silverware
6th	Iron	Egg	Wood objects
7th	Wool, Copper	Woollen	Desk sets/Pen & Pencil sets
8th	Bronze	Salt	Linens, Lace
9th	Pottery	Copper	Leather goods
10th	Tin, Aluminum	Tin	Diamond jewelry

Desk sets.

No, really, could I POSSIBLY make this up?  Desk sets.  Yeah, uh huh, that's what I said.

 

Now looking around my desk I see 3 knitting bags, several finished projects waiting to have ends woven in or to be mailed or felted (I know, I'm awful about finishing things), about 3 inches of knitting patterns, a yarn scale, assorted stitch markers, a calculator (for changing gauge), and a gorgeous skein of 100% silk cream laceweight yarn that I'm afraid to knit with.  Does this LOOK like a desk that wishes it had a desk set?  I suppose that cuppy thing in the middle could be used to hold Double Pointed Needles, but I'm not even sure what some of those other things are.  And don't you DARE use that pointy thing to open my squishy packages; if you cut through my yarn we're going to do more than just talk about it!

Needless to say, I was so horrified at the idea of desk sets as an appropriate anniversary present that I had to check online to see if it was some kind of joke.  There I learned that there are apparently two lists of appropriate anniversary gifts, the Modern and the Traditional (actually these are also two Traditionals, one US and one UK, but that's not important here).  While Desk Sets really are the suggested seventh year gift, they are only the Modern one.  The Traditional gift idea?  Ready for this?   Wool and Copper.  Yeah, two of my favorite things in the whole world.

Better yet, combine the two into copper colored wool, like this:

KnitPicks Shimmer laceweight color:  Spice  mid winding and dreaming of being a Haruni someday

 If you are afraid that wool and copper is too traditional, feel free to shake it up a little with some of this lovely copper colored 100% silk instead:

Claudia Hand Paint 100% silk lace weight in colorway: Copper Pennies, photo from KnittyNoddy.com

So while you are out and about shopping for our anniversary gift in the next few days, think traditional.

But I'll give you advanced warning, when it comes to 10 years and my choice is "Tin and aluminum" (traditional) or "Diamond jewelry" (modern), I'm a modern girl all the way ;)