A Wedding Anniversary - McDonald's Style

On May 11th we will celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary. Since we’re squirreling away any extra money we can for our upcoming vacation this summer, no big plans to celebrate are on the horizon. No matter. My darling and I can celebrate and wax nostalgic over happily wedded years past with little more than pretzels and beer if needs be but I think we can do a tad better than that. This year our anniversary falls in the middle of the work week. I prefer to celebrate on the day if possible so a nice little dinner out somewhere would be perfect. I notice that a new film we want to see is playing at our local theater and cuddling up companionably in the dark theater to watch this would be welcome as well. Put the two together and there you’d have an ideal anniversary date!

We’ve acknowledged our special day in lots of different ways over the years. Celebrations have been anywhere from grand and glorious to simple and subdued; all have been wonderful. I’d be lying if I told you that I remember each and every one. I do recall our first anniversary pretty well, however. My husband had always taken me out to excellent restaurants for dinner dates during our courtship and our first year of marriage. For some inexplicable reason that I can’t possibly fathom as I’m writing this, I wanted to celebrate our first anniversary by staying home and eating McDonald’s Big Macs in bed. My dear and still besotted husband very kindly agreed to this strange request, no doubt beginning to secretly wonder if the woman he’d married only a year ago was playing with a full deck.

Out he went to procure the anniversary feast while I awaited his return in bed; it was a brief trip since a McDonald’s was very handily located just down the street from our apartment. To accompany this sumptuous meal, we drank a bottle of Asti Spumante* and for dessert, ate the top layer of our chocolate wedding cake which had been ensconced in the freezer awaiting its traditional consumption on that special day.

The word that comes to my mind instantly as I describe this bizarre meal is...noxious. Please keep in mind that I was incredibly young, a mere 21 years of age and apparently was in possession of a stomach that could digest nails. You may rest assured that this meal was never repeated but for that one evening so very long ago, it was the dinner of my dreams.

Last year, around this time, I wrote about our wedding day. I invite you to read it here :

http://journals.aol.com/springsnymph/AnotherCountryHeardFrom/entries/114

to share in a reminiscence of my wedding day. I am honored to be able to say I have been lucky and fortunate enough to be in a marriage where, indeed, the bride and groom lived happily ever after...and continue to do so.

*This and only this was the sparkling wine that flowed like a river at our wedding reception. Neither of us cared for the more traditional champagne and to my very young, unsophisticated palette, this was the bubbliest, most festive and best tasting beverage I knew of at the time...I was a little more than three months away from my 21st birthday when we were married.

Today, you probably couldn’t get me to swallow a glass of this sickly-sweet sparkling wine and I still don’t like the taste of champagne!