an anniversary celebration, 16 happy years...
Once upon a time....I fell in love. With a fun, smart, athletic, spiritual, popular guy. It happened around Thanksgiving. He wasn't so much "in love" as he was interested, but through the Christmas break from college classes we spent loads of time together. We went together to my sorority party. We went to my sisters' choir concerts. We went to Temple square to see the lights about a hundred times that season.
Christmas came, and I wanted to celebrate all the time we'd spent together in the short month we'd been dating. I listed the places we'd spent our time, purchased some gifts, and set to work. It took all Christmas morning. My mom was mad I wasn't with our family around the tree; but she knew too that I had given my heart away and had to do the subtle things I could to signal my wish that the boy of my dreams would give his heart to me.
John met me at my home and his "scavenger hunt" Christmas began. We went to the high school where he'd endured "hark how the bells" umpteen times in one concert evening. We went to the parking lot of the LDS institute at the University of Utah, the place we most often saw each other during our days at school. We went to Temple Square. Our hunt went on and on.
I have to insert here that most of the time I spent with John was in the company of one or more of his friends. He was kind of "the leader of the pack". And one of his posse was with him basically in every waking hour. He'd pick me up for a date and have two guys in the back seat -sans dates themselves-along for the night. I didn't mind much accept, though I loved this boy already, I rarely had a chance to "visit" with him. Its kind of hard to determine if the one you love is worthy to be "the one" forever without speaking with him candidly and without audience...and we had pretty much always had an audience (doorstep scenes were awkward to say the least).
Christmas day was different. We were alone and together. We were remembering fun times we'd had, and speaking of fun to come. We didn't make plans for our future, but in being alone with John I think we both could see that there was a chance that we could actually have a future; and that a future together could be bright and happy. It was "falling in love personified" as we enjoyed one another without a crowd and realized we could be our own posse even if we were just two. This was the beginning of our courtship for sure; but we could see that this beginning could perhaps have no end.
Months later when my heart was over burdened with love and hope for a future with John I overheard him talking to his parents about our Christmas past. He said "no girl has ever done something that thoughtful for me before". And I wondered if perhaps that painstakingly planned hunt through the early days of dating wasn't just the right beginning to what I'd hoped would be a never ending and ever enduring love with the boy who was the man I wanted to marry.
Christmas came, and I wanted to celebrate all the time we'd spent together in the short month we'd been dating. I listed the places we'd spent our time, purchased some gifts, and set to work. It took all Christmas morning. My mom was mad I wasn't with our family around the tree; but she knew too that I had given my heart away and had to do the subtle things I could to signal my wish that the boy of my dreams would give his heart to me.
John met me at my home and his "scavenger hunt" Christmas began. We went to the high school where he'd endured "hark how the bells" umpteen times in one concert evening. We went to the parking lot of the LDS institute at the University of Utah, the place we most often saw each other during our days at school. We went to Temple Square. Our hunt went on and on.
I have to insert here that most of the time I spent with John was in the company of one or more of his friends. He was kind of "the leader of the pack". And one of his posse was with him basically in every waking hour. He'd pick me up for a date and have two guys in the back seat -sans dates themselves-along for the night. I didn't mind much accept, though I loved this boy already, I rarely had a chance to "visit" with him. Its kind of hard to determine if the one you love is worthy to be "the one" forever without speaking with him candidly and without audience...and we had pretty much always had an audience (doorstep scenes were awkward to say the least).
Christmas day was different. We were alone and together. We were remembering fun times we'd had, and speaking of fun to come. We didn't make plans for our future, but in being alone with John I think we both could see that there was a chance that we could actually have a future; and that a future together could be bright and happy. It was "falling in love personified" as we enjoyed one another without a crowd and realized we could be our own posse even if we were just two. This was the beginning of our courtship for sure; but we could see that this beginning could perhaps have no end.
Months later when my heart was over burdened with love and hope for a future with John I overheard him talking to his parents about our Christmas past. He said "no girl has ever done something that thoughtful for me before". And I wondered if perhaps that painstakingly planned hunt through the early days of dating wasn't just the right beginning to what I'd hoped would be a never ending and ever enduring love with the boy who was the man I wanted to marry.
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