I Love You More Than I Could Ever Promise

Well the holidays are over, and we're on to a new year.

No shortage of happy memories from the past couple weeks. Christmas was great, but extremely tiring. I hardly slept at all through the weekend because aside from work we were driving all over town spending time with family. The Monkey got more toys than he (or we) know what to do with. I really enjoyed watching him open his presents because he's finally at the age where he has an idea of what's going on. Last year we would open a present in front of him and he would mostly just stare. This year he would help open, visibly show surprise, and then start trying to pull open the various boxes of stuff to start playing with it. It was great.

Then New Year's Eve came along, which is also our wedding anniversary. It was our 5th anniversary, so it was a big one. For most of the day I was feeling very romantic and mushy, thinking about spending the evening gazing into the Weirdo's eyes while we hold hands and gush about how much we love each other. In the back of my mind I knew this wouldn't fly because the Weirdo isn't big on that kind of stuff. I got my What light through yonder window breaks time in the car on the way to dinner though. We held hands and talked about our favorite moments from the past five years. I of course mentioned all the big ones, like trips to the beach we took, the birth of the Monkey, and so on. It's been a few days now, and as I've thought more about it I've realized it's all the little moments, that don't necessarily pop into memory immediately, that I also treasure. It's the simple fact that we don't have to be at the beach or in the mountains for me to appreciate her love and companionship. Even when we're just sitting on the couch together chatting about our days, or what's on tv, or the Monkey's latest discovery of his capacity for destruction, I'm happy. I'm content. Just being with her from day to day, during the ho-hum parts of life, evokes the same feelings of love and togetherness that I get when we're having a "big" moment.

At dinner the Weirdo gave me a new wristwatch, which is great because for years I have been wearing a $10 Wal Mart special. She had a jeweler engrave the following on the back of the watch:

I Love You More Than I Could Ever Promise

It's from a song, and she said she thought it was very appropriate to describe her feelings for me. I was blown away by it. If the ring on my left hand ever isn't enough of a reminder that my gal loves me, I need only shift my eyes to my wrist. I'm a lucky guy. And, that definitely provided the mushy romance I was hoping for. After that we spent most of dinner playing Angry Birds on her iPhone.

Following our wonderful dinner we went out to a bar with Bestie & the Firefighter to ring in the new year. We spent the first little while standing off to the side of the place waiting for a table to open up. An older couple suddenly had the check on their table, and the Weirdo was waiting to pounce. We finally got to sit down. Had some drinks, some laughs, and the Weirdo and I got to dance.

So we ended one year and started a new one. Here's hoping for a great 2011!