No Anniversary Gift Exchange

April 24, 2014

written by Cathy Baker, married to my CSI guy for 20 years this summer

My daughter captured this photo of us last week.

The truth is, in 20 years of marriage, we have NEVER exchanged anniversary gifts with each other. Oh don’t get me wrong, we celebrate, but we don’t buy gifts. Here are some ways we’ve celebrated over the years, hope you might be able to use some of them too!

Furniture Shop

For the first 10 years of our marriage we would go furniture shopping and buy a new piece of furniture each year for our anniversary. This allowed us the time to slowly build up our furniture selection. It was fun to do, and gave us a shared gift we could use for years to come. We still have a lot of our pieces from those earlier years of shopping.

Getaway

After kids came along, we started celebrating by getting away for our anniversary. The gift of time together was the best gift we could give ourselves!

We usually just do weekend getaways. We turn off all electronics (no tv, no smartphones, no computer – we just leave our phone on in case our kids need us, but we don’t call them.)

We’ve even done some staycations. I keep an eye out for half-price deals from www.groupon.com, and other similar sites, to make it even more affordable – hotels nearby, new restaurants to try, even did ziplining once!

New Experiences

Last year, a facebook friend asked for ideas for her 25th anniversary. They were looking for 25 ideas of things they had never done nor experienced. Their plan was to spend the year enjoying those new experiences together. I LOVE this idea! Time, togetherness, getting out of routine and trying something new!

Need some new ideas? Perhaps new ethnic foods, spelunking, zip-lining, para-sailing, pottery class, salsa dancing, kayaking, hot air balloon ride?

Do you do anything besides gift-giving to celebrate your anniversary? Please share, I need some new ideas for our next 20 years! 🙂