Thursday, June 30, 2011

June Brides

Gosh, Dr. van der Stevejink and I were just babies!
This past weekend was my wedding anniversary (well, OUR wedding anniversary - Dr. van der Stevejink's and mine). Thirty-one years of wedded bliss. We didn't really do anything this year - except spend the day together...which was just fine for 31 years.  Last year (30) we sorta kinda went to Hawaii...4 months late. This year I got a serger...from craigslist...the lady was selling it cheap since she couldn't get it to work. Turns out the timing was off.  My awesome engineer husband fixed it up just fine - and if you refer to the handy chart below (that I found here), you'll see that he wasn't far off the mark.

I had a good time reading some of the gift items to my husband...I warned him that groceries (44th anniversary) weren't going to cut the mustard. My favorite anniversary 'present' is travel - but I don't expect it every year.

My question is, what do you consider appropriate gifts for wedding anniversaries AND what has been your favorite anniversary gift (it doesn't have to be a gift that you've gotten - it could be something that you've seen someone else get).

Anniversary/Traditional/Modern

1st Paper Clocks, Plastic, Gold Jewelry
2nd Cotton China, Cotton, Calico, Garnet
3rd Leather Crystal, Glass, Pearls
4th Fruit, Flowers Appliances, Linen, Silk, Nylon, Blue Topaz
5th Wood Silverware, Sapphire
6th Sugar, Iron Wood, Candy, Amethyst
7th Wool, Copper Brass, Desk Sets, Onyx
8th Bronze, Pottery Appliances, Linens, Lace, Tourmaline Jewelry
9th Pottery, Willow Leather, Lapis Jewelry
10th Tin, Aluminum Diamond Jewelry
11th Steel Fashion, Turquoise Jewelry
12th Silk, Linen Pearls, Jade
13th Lace Textiles, Furs, Citrine
14th Ivory Gold Jewelry, Opal
15th Crystal Glass, Watches, Ruby
16th Silver hollowware, Peridot
17th Furniture, Watch
18th Porcelain, Cat's Eye Jewelry
19th Bronze, Aquamarine
20th China Platinum, Emerald
21st Brass, Nickel
22nd Copper
23rd Silver plate
24th Musical instruments
25th Silver Sterling silver
26th Original pictures
27th Sculpture
28th Orchids
29th New furniture
30th Pearl Diamond
31st Time Pieces
32nd Conveyances (e.g., automobiles)
33rd Amethyst
34th Opal
35th Coral (Jade) Jade
36th Bone china
37th Alabaster
38th Beryl, Tourmaline
39th Lace
40th Ruby Ruby, Garnet
41st Land
42nd Developed real estate
43rd Travel
44th Groceries
45th Sapphire Sapphire
46th Original poetry tribute
47th Books
48th Optical goods
49th Luxuries, any kind
50th Gold Gold
55th Emerald Emerald, Turquoise
60th Diamond Gold, Diamond
75th Platinum Diamondlike Stones, Gold
80th Diamond, Pearl
85th Diamond, Sapphire
90th Diamond, Emerald
95th Diamond, Ruby
100th 10 Carat Diamond

3 comments:

  1. Happy anniversary! We celebrated our 36th on the 21st. We went out to eat and, like we've been doing for the past six months, spent the day together, too. Very nice day.

    One of my favorite anniversary gifts was one my husband helped my father to do for my mother - for their 40th. One of Faron's best friends is a noted stained glass artisan and Dad asked Faron to make a picture frame for their wedding photo, using the colors of our birth stones (in birth order, of course) in (stripes of glass diagonally across the frame. It turned out really well, and after my mom re-married after Dad died, she gave it to me. I love it.

    Another "memorable" gift we bought one another for our first anniversary - a vacuum cleaner. Our income tax refund had just come and we were so thrilled to finally have our own! We lived about a block from my sister back then and about every other week I'd borrow her sweeper to clean the rug in our living room.

    Now, we don't "do" gifts, just go out.

    me<><

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  2. Betty Barbara here--
    Hey Betty Debbie! Happy Anniversary to you both.
    (What a great picture. Love your hat!)
    We just celebrated our 39th at the end of May.
    We didn't do anything special this year, as I was recovering from surgery. Next year, though, we hope to do something big, like a trip.
    The two most memorable were our 25th, when we did almost a week in Savannah (one of our favorite cities) and our 30th (a week in Hawaii--where we would dearly love to be able to live again). We have a severely handicapped child who still lives with us, so the chances to take a romantic trip so we can just be by ourselves are few and far between.
    Betty Cindy-I know what you mean about a useful item being a memorable gift. We have bought several Weber grills over the years as anniversary gifts to ourselves.

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  3. Betty Ross writes me a crossword for each wedding anniversary. (He proposed by crossword puzzle as well.) I was stumped (a bit) when the thematic entries for our first anniversary were newspapers (Le Monde, etc.). I now know to look for the gifts, suitably interpreted in the grid, but as I don't have them memorized, I'm still stumped (a bit).

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