Best Second Anniversary … Ever

My Mom asked me how it feels to be married for two years so far.

Honestly, in many ways it feels like it has been longer. In the first year of marriage Andrew lost a job, I got a job, we searched for a job, Andrew got a job … and we moved three times. Now that we’ve had over a year in Singapore, life feels more routine. But, in many ways, because we went through so much in our first year together, I feel like this last year has just cemented in all the closeness we developed in our first year.

Now that we’re expecting our first child, many times I forget that we’ve only been married two years. Married life feels normal and happily permanent. Lord willing parenthood will feel the same way!

We’ve started our second year off in an unusual way. We’re apart – for the longest time ever: 3 weeks. Since we were anticipating this separation, we decided to celebrate our anniversary early.

T minus 3 days

Accordingly, last Saturday we enacted our plans for our anniversary celebration. In brainstorming for how we would celebrate we realized that we had never done the iconic Singapore Cable Car ride together. Andrew had done it several years ago, but I had never done it.

The Singapore Cable Car has three stops, the Jewel Box at the top of Mt. Faber (Mount is a bit of a misnomer – think glorified hill), Harborfront (a mall/business tower), and Sentosa (the “tourist” destination of Singapore). We weren’t at all in a rush to visit Sentosa, so we decided we could save money and do the ride to/between Haborfront and Mt. Faber.

We waited till 7:00pm, when you could purchase the cheaper evening ride tickets, then we headed to the cable car.

Not that we had a choice, but we got the Angry Birds cable car. Woot!

Our attempt at a self shot… the bird wasn’t happy about it

The starting point: Harborfront

Day time view – the two malls, shipyard (one of many), and Sentosa in the background

View during the day

Heading to the top of Mt. Faber

At the Jewel Box there is a nice look out and a few fancy restaurants. Seeing as it was our anniversary and a good reason to go fancy, Andrew made reservations.

The Jewel Box – The Black Opal restaurant from the outside

Our fancy restaurant destination from the inside

Feeling fancy and wanting to make the meal last longer we both ordered multiple courses. As we waited for our salads, we took the opportunity to snap photos of each other:

Yay – an excuse to wear one of my maternity dresses!

Andrew happy but hungry and ready to eat

We weren’t disappointed with our meals!

Andrew had a set meal that included Caesar Salad, Cauliflower Soup, Red Snapper, and Coconut Panna Cotta. I did the a-la-carte option and chose a Citrus Salad, the same soup, Veal Osso Bucco, and a Mixed Berry Crumble.

Creamy and warm – perfect for a soup!

While the soup was delicious, I think the highlight and dish we would both eat again was the veal. It was melt-in-your-mouth good!

We had to laugh when our dessert utensils were put before us.

Our dessert spoons

We thought it funny that I should receive a mega-spoon for dessert, and Andrew should be allotted a dainty spoon. When we got our desserts we realized that it was a practical reason: my dessert was large; his was served in a tiny martini glass.

All-in-all, a great meal, and a wonderful cable car ride. A nice way for us to celebrate our 2nd year of marriage, if albeit a few days early. On our way home, I told Andrew that is was my best second anniversary… ever!

T minus 2 days

On Sunday we exchanged gifts. Not that I put much stock in the tradition of giving certain types of gifts per each year of marriage, however, I did notice that the 2nd year is supposedly the “cotton” anniversary.

For my gift for Andrew, I took some T-shirts that either he did not like to wear, or shouldn’t have been worn anymore anyways. I did my best to avoid the holes and sweat stains and cut some squares. It took me a while, but I eventually had his finished product:

T-shirts turned into a picnic blanket/quilt

(I gave him a thin tarp the same size so that it could be used outside on the wet ground. Since the fabric is nice and thin, it makes it quite compact when rolled up.)

Andrew’s gift to me was prettier.

So me! Thanks Handsome!

He gave me a beautiful jewelry box covered in Chinese looking blue/gold, floral print fabric. It was given to me with a sweet side comment of, “I know you don’t have a place to put your jewelry, and it gets… everywhere… so I thought this would be useful.” My husband outdid himself by accompanying my beautiful new jewelry box with a set of earrings and a necklace that he picked out himself. Not bad, Andrew!

Actual Anniversary

Tuesday dawned. Actually I take that back. The alarm clock went off, about 3.5 hours before the day dawned. We got ready to head to the airport. (Even though I was the only one flying, my thoughtful husband knew I would appreciate him sacrificing and getting up early to see me off at the airport.)

At the airport we shared a meal at KFC together.

Smiles spending our last few minutes together

After that, we parted ways as I went through security to catch my flight. Most of my anniversary was spent flying or waiting for planes – not the ideal way to spend an anniversary. On the flip side, it did last 36 hours; not many people can say that! I am so thankful for the 2 years of marriage. And now, even though we didn’t get to spend much of the actual day of our 2nd anniversary together, I am still thankful. Thankful because I have a wonderful husband who works hard to follow the Lord and to lead his wife in a loving manner.

Also, I am thankful that I get to spend a few weeks with my family. Yay!