Grandma Henke

This is our celebration week … Our 43rd anniversary and Lynn’s 66th birthday.    I can tell we are older by how we celebrated.   

Year’s ago our anniversaries included a huge vase of beautiful roses and a quiet, romantic dinner.    This year allergies have called a halt to the beautiful roses and heartburn has taken away much of the thrill of eating out.   Usually, there would be two specially picked cards with romantic expressions scribed thoughtfully at the bottom.   Lynn’s card usually included the phrase, "If we can make it (insert the number of years we have been married) we can make it (insert the number of years we will have been married in a year).

For our anniversary this year we got a drink at McDonald’s and a taco at Taco Bell which we ate in the parking lot of Walgreen’s while we waited for a prescription to be filled.    Somehow this year neither of us were able to get cards for the other.    And driving anywhere didn’t appeal to either of us because we’re both hobbling around with achy body parts and didn’t feel like doing anything.

Birthdays have always meant an extra special dinner and present.   If it is your birthday you get to choose where to eat.    Lynn jokingly chose Costco … where there are plenty of taste tables conveniently located up and down the aisles.   As I went past one of them I grabbed a nice, blue flannel shirt.    As Lynn was paying for it at the check out stand I smiled and whispered, "Happy Birthday".

Our real celebration, tonight, involved a trip to Chuckee Cheese with the Nordquist family where we were able to sit on a soft bench at our table, hand out tokens we purchased for $25.00 and watch the pleasure on the faces of the grand kids as they ran from game to game trying to win "tickets" they could later cash in for trinkets worth pennies.   The children did the celebrating and it was enough for us.   

Fortunately we had to stop at Target afterwards to pick up colored hair spray for the grand children to wear to "Weird Hair Day" at school tomorrow and I was able to get Lynn a card.  I left it on his pillow but he probably won’t see it and by morning it will be stuck to his face.   

We agreed we may still celebrate our anniversary with a nice romantic dinner where we actually go inside a building and sit down at a table … and maybe even take in a movie since we are "seniors" and get a nice discount at the theater.  (We actually prefer watching a DVD in the comfort of our own home where we can pause occasionally so we can go to the bathroom.)   Who knows, we may even splurge and share a bucket of popcorn.

Tonight we’ll finally meet up in bed and the air will fill with familiar whispers and moans as we struggle to get our sore bodies comfortable enough to fall asleep.     

My how the celebrations have changed.