What do we want from love? To be known. To be seen. To be understood. from TEDTalk by Mandy Len Catron
Today is my 20th anniversary! Happy anniversary to the love of my life. Twenty years, 3 kids and a dog later, here we are! As my husband always says, “Who would have thunk?”
Have you seen this TEDTalk? Did you know you can fall in love with anyone just by asking them 36 questions? Mandy Len Catron: Falling in love is the easy part…what’s the difference between falling in love and staying in love.
20 Things I Love About My Husband
20. He’s handy.
The night we got engaged.
19. He doesn’t get cranky when you ask him to fix something around the house. He actually likes wearing his tool belt and teaching the kids how to fix things.
18. When I do something stupid to my car, he rushes over to help me and thinks that I am funny. The stupid things include: backing into a crescent shaped piece of concete sticking out on the curb in front of the preschool, thereby puncturing my tire with a huge and dramatic “whoosh”; leaving an interior light on in my car, draining the battery; not realizing my car lock mechanism is loose and therefore the car door won’t close. There’s more but I deliberately forget them.
Engagement photo
17. When I met him, he only had beer, mustard and pickles in his fridge. He taught himself to cook when our first child was born. Now he cooks a lot (and he’s really good at it)!
16. He doesn’t make a big deal out of his birthday.
15. He’s not afraid of PDAs (public displays of affection). He hugs. He kisses. My kids say, “Get a room!”
14. He’s patient when he plays golf with me even though I totally suck at it. He lines up my putts for me, carries my bag and gives me pointers. Before we were married, he even hired the best golf instructor he knew for me because he said boyfriends should not teach their girlfriends to play golf.
13. He’s a good tipper.
12. He likes to read. He’s not afraid to teach himself new things.
11. He’s willing to take risks.10. He has impeccable manners. And the corrollary is that he thinks I was raised by wolves. Obviously, he’s in charge of the manners department for our kids. He has taught them how to shake hands properly — firm grip, eye contact. Has our little boy holding doors since he was in preschool and could barely hold a door. Our kids pen handwritten thank you notes that sometimes receive a thank you note back because the recipient was so impressed.
9. He’s a generous person.
8. Even though he pretends that he is not as intense as I am, he actually is so we get each other.
7. He’s a goofball.
6. He’s an amazing dad!
5. He makes me laugh every single day!
4. He thinks our anniversary is an event to buy me a present. Apparently, in his rulebook, I do not need to get him a present.
3. Even though my husband put himself through college on a golf scholarship, he doesn’t push our kids in sports like a crazy Tiger Dad. He will only take our kids out to play golf if they ask him (though secretly he hopes one of them will choose to play golf professionally).
2. He cleans.
1. He’s easy to stay in love with!
Here are the flipagrams we made for each other (we are corny like that).
How about you? Do you have a big anniversary coming up? How will you celebrate?
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BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.
Congratulations on your anniversary! I enjoyed reading your kind, thoughtful words about your husband and I’m sure that he could say equally sweet things about you. It seems you have a mutually loving, respectful, & caring relationship.
Enjoy your special day. <3
Thanks so much Niki! I have to say that I was floating on air for the day of my anniversary! My husband made me a very sweet card and two flipagram videos and it made me so happy! Our kids think we are so weird and corny! 🙂
Loved. Loved. LOVED this beautiful tribute to your years together. Thank you for sharing. Everyone deserves love like that to fill/fulfill their lives. Hubby and I are heading toward our 25th anniversary and feel similarly fortunate to get to spend our days with each other, adventuring, being and enduring life’s bumps together. Happiest 20th anniversary to you and your husband. And many, many more together!!!
Thank you so much Donna and congrats on your upcoming 25th! Will you do something special for that?
Happy Anniversary to you both! Wishing you many more years of happiness together.
Thanks so much Barbara!
I smiled all the way thru. Congratulations to you both. Here’s to another 20 and well beyond.
Continued blessings!
Paula (aka Lee)
Thank you Lee!!
Those flipagrams are adorable! Happy anniversary!!! Mike and I celebrate 15 years next June.
Thanks Maryanne!
Congrats on 15 coming up fast! We never do much to celebrate beyond a dinner out but we are thinking of throwing an Ironic Asian party for our 25th. We had such fun coming up with ideas for that but I doubt we will ever pull it off.