September 27, 1997....

....was the day my second 20 years started.  My birthday is September 20th, which meant Brian and I were married a week after I turned 20.  My parents had me the first 20, Brian's had me the last 20. The best 20.  I'm so grateful our paths somehow crossed.  It was highly unlikely, me being a country girl out in the woods, and he being a city slicker.  Somehow our worlds collided the night of the Olympics bombing in Atlanta.  My sister brought a group of her city friends out to our property to camp. Mom and I were inside watching TV and when the bombing happened, we hollard out into the woods and they all came running in to watch the news....back when bombings weren't as common and it was a pretty big deal.  That was it.......not love at first sight....but definitely instant friends that let love grow.  It's still growing. I don't know how after 20 years I still feel like I love him more every year.

We've been celebrating all year, really.  There have been lots of little "20 years ago today" moments. As we contemplated a year ago how we would celebrate our actual 20th anniversary, we agreed on a few things. Normally, we go all out for our kids. They get a ton of gifts, while Brian and I exchange cards and maybe go out to dinner and maybe exchange a gift or 2, but its mainly about the kids. This year, we nixed that. There were 3 things I really wanted for family gifts. Things that for some reason say "family" to me, and would make our cozy home feel even more cozy and homey- a piano, a record player, and a nice, solid dining room table. I'm not sure why I felt so strongly about those 3 things, but I just really felt calm and cozy and nesty when I would think about having those 3 things in the house.  So over the past year, Brian and I made it happen. Each of those items came about with it's own fun story, which I will spare you in this post, but they have each already made for some great memories!

So now that the actual date has arrived, after a year of celebrating it, what will we be doing to make it a special day?? Brian and I will be putting on our pjs early and getting comfy while the kids make us a fancy coconut and lime shrimp dinner with lemon bars for dessert, followed by snuggling in again to watch the Survivor premier with the kids : ) Sounds like a perfect cozy evening!