Sunday, February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day by Merrillee Whren

Today, of course, is Valentine's Day. It is also my 40th wedding anniversary. We got married on Valentine's Day for practical reasons, not because it was Valentine's Day. I was teaching school at the time, and we decided to get married in February the Saturday before President's Day, so I would have that day off. It just so happened that Valentine's Day fell on that Saturday.

Here's one of the photos from our wedding album which has seen better days. The photos are still good but the album has fallen apart. You have to love a guy who was willing to wear ruffles. What was I thinking when we picked that out?
Since our anniversary falls on Valentine's Day we have made our celebration pretty low key over the years. The first few years we celebrated with another couple who lived in our small Ohio town. His birthday was a few days before, so we celebrated both occasions by going out to eat. Many years when we lived in Florida, we started celebrating together again by visiting a tropical paradise or taking a cruise together.

Here we are silhouetted against a tropical sunset.
From the beginning we decided that we wouldn't buy Valentine's or anniversary gifts for each other. We would buy something for our house that we could enjoy together. Most often it was a piece of furniture. Here's my favorite, our grandfather clock.
This is what we got this year. It's practical and just what we needed.
  Forty years ago my husband and I took a chance on each other. We've had our ups and downs, but we chose to nurture our love, and it's been worth it. 
How will you celebrate Valentine's Day?
 
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 Merrillee Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance Writers of American. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of  thirty-five plus years, and has two grown daughters. Her upcoming release, Falling for the Millionaire, will be available around March 22, 2016, at all major book retailers. You can find the pre-order links at her website. Connect with her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.

4 comments:

  1. Happy, Happy Anniversary to you both! And Happy Valentine's Day! May you enjoy many, many more wonderful years together!

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  2. Merrillee,
    Happy Anniversary! My dh and I celebrated our 40th anniversary in June and took our adult children to Disneyworld. Also, we have the exact same grandfather clock in our foyer. Hope you enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's Day.

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