5 years and 6 thanksgivings.

We've been married for 5 years and 6 thanksgivings.

Our first Thanksgiving together was on our honeymoon at McDonald's in Crete, Greece.  I'm not ashamed to go McDonald's in foreign countries.  I support and perpetuate that stereotype of Americans overseas going to McDonald's after only being in a foreign country for a couple of days. (To be fair, when we went to Crete it was the off season for tourists, so lit-erally nothing was open).

Anyway, enough about our first Thanksgiving and on to details about our 5th anniversary.  We decided this year to put all our vacation savings (actually for the last two years) towards a big anniversary trip in January (we're going to Oz and the land of the silver fern).  So on the day, we didn't go big, but we did have fun.  What we did summed up in 4 points:

1) Lunch at a restaurant we've always been intrigued by (not sure if we'll go back)
2) 100 minute foot massage (no picture)
3) Dinner at a new Thai restaurant (decent, will go back)
4) Aaron got his anniversary gift a little late.  (It arrived 6 days too late)

@ lunch
I had a friend cut bangs for me.  Shorter than I like, and I haven't quite figured out
how to make them look good, but hey, they'll grow back eventually.

Dinner at the Thai restaurant.
Oh, what's that?  an anniversary scarf?  Yeah it is.
He knows what I like.

His package finally made it from Greece.

We've got quite the collection of starbucks mugs from cities that we love.

Anniversary Gifts

This past week, we celebrated our anniversary (if you read the blog, you may have heard...)

Here's the rundown on the loot we scored:

Aaron:

Stacy surprised me with an incredible gift - a painting. Not just any painting, one that I've had my eye on since my first time up here, in 2007. It is an oil-based painting of some mountains with sunlight highlighting one of the faces, and fog shrouding the bottom.

I'm not much for the arts (or very "cultured," for that matter) but I am in love with this painting. It reminds me of great times I've had hiking and the mountains that currently surround me on a daily basis, plus the Almighty Father who created the mountains (Psalm 65:6) and all creation. Incredible.

Stacy:

Before moving up here I had been eyeing copper tea pots that they sell up here.  So I was so happy when Aaron surprised me with one for our anniversary.

Also there is an artisan guild here in the city that sells really quality goods, using local patterns and colors.  Their bags are made of a really soft  leather.  When Aaron biked to the fishing village a couple of weeks back, he found the factory where they actually make the bags, and picked one up for me.  

I'm not as descriptive as Aaron is - but trust me, I love them.  In fact I love them so much, I was worried that Aaron wasn't going to like his gift nearly as much as I love mine.

carolina style, all the way

Aaron and I celebrate things with hot dogs.  When we got engaged we ate hot dogs.  When Carolina won the national championship we ate hot dogs.  To celebrate vacation in Thailand, we ate hot dogs.

I love this face.

Our fourth anniversary, however falls on Thanksgiving....so this time we'll celebrate with sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce.

I love life with this hot dog loving guy.  These four years have been my favorite four years of life (including college - which was pretty fun).  Aaron adds fun, challenge, growth, patience, grace, laughs, adventure, and a new understanding of Jesus to my life.

He and our four years of marriage is what I'll be saying I'm thankful for, when asked at the thanksgiving table today.

one year ago today

One year ago today, we arrived in China.  We arrived in China a year ago?!  How did a year already pass by??

We haven't done anything to remember this day - maybe I'll talk to Aaron and we can come up with some tradition.  It just so happens that we moved to China on St. Nicholas Day- so maybe we'll remember both at the same time and eat oranges, chocolate, and nuts, and set our shoes outside of the door.  Although, I suspect they will be gone in the morning, not filled with treats.

To celebrate our one year anniversary of living in China - here is a video of the mess it was to pack and store stuff, and some pictures of our farewells.


The video below is pretty boring and messy.  And I'm not sure if I thought zooming in would make some kind of huge impact or statement.  because it doesn't.  and it looks pretty lame.

an oversized truck for our goods

pizza after our friends helped us move out.  we miss y'all!

goodbyes at the airport.

And a video of Josh - because he's a cutie.

the beginning of year four (and the celebrating of the first three)

So we have a lot of catching up to do.  As in, I wrote a post about our anniversary, but then didn't add pictures or post it, so I'll post that now.  And then I have a thanksgiving post.  So looks like you'll see what our thanksgiving was like when it is about Christmas time.  Hopefully, I'll post that tomorrow.  But no promises.  I can be quite the slacker when it comes to digital communication.  Anyway - here's the belated anniversary post:

What a sweet guy, that Aaron is.

For our anniversary - Aaron took me out to two dinners.  One a couple of weekends ago when instead of going outside of the city for a day hike (aaron's knee was inflamed from a run) we went to the Tony Roma's in the city.  Nice treat - especially for Aaron to get to have both steak AND ribs.  I'm not sure he's had either one of those things for a year.

Then last night (November 22nd - I wrote this blog a while ago, don't forget) on our actual anniversary, Aaron surprised me by taking me to a recently opened Italian restaurant in our city.  Apparently it's a chain from Hong Kong - with restaurants in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the Philippines.  The restaurant was AMAZING.  I had a salad with pears, goat cheese, and candied walnuts on mixed greens.  What??  When did those things come to China?  I also had a margherita pizza, and Aaron had a chicken cooked in a mushroom sauce served over polenta, with asparagus.  To those of you living in the US this restaurant may not be that impressive, though I actually think it would be a nice restaurant in America, as well.  But I realize that you would probably not get as excited as I did when after we finished the basket of bread they gave us, they REFILLED it.  Amazing.  And then they refilled it a second time.  We finally told her we didn't need any more bread, though I think we could have sat there all night and just ate that bread.  Needless to say, a lot of bread was consumed.

Aaron surprised me with a Christmas tree for our anniversary.  Since the beginning of October I have been talking nonstop about wanting to get a fake Christmas tree (since they don't sell the real ones here) and wondering where I could get them.  I would text Aaron every time I found one.  Unbeknownst to me, he had been planning on buying me one this whole time.

Man, what a great husband.  I'm so thankful for him.   

三周年

I don't really blog about serious stuff. But today, me and Stace's third anniversary, I'm feeling like a little photo-celebration of the past three years is in order. I am way into this little cutie I married.

The fun begins...

Traveling.

Mountain lakes. Delightful.

Delicious. In every sense of the word.

Snacks, my favorite.

I married a True Blue angel.

Who did I marry again?

Yeah, she's a model.

The fun just keeps coming.