As many of you know,
yesterday was my 12th wedding anniversary (in addition to being the Feast of the Annunciation, of course!). The traditional and modern gifts for 12th anniversaries are silk and linen -- neither of which we're into ... we're much more the wool and denim type. Dinner is always a possibility, but we're pretty low-key folks ... and we only have under-12s at home now ... I decided to keep it simple (especially since it was the tail-end of a tough school week for dh).
Rather than getting dressed up all fancy ... going out to an expensive restaurant ... deciding to take the kids or hire a babysitter ... we stayed in. I ordered everything from Amazon (and thus, the title of this post was born) and spent far less than we would have going out ... and it was better!
Here's what we did to make the 12th special and memorable:
- Black and Decker waffle iron
for homemade waffles -- this is the kind of waffle-maker we had as kids; I love this thing! It folds flat and has smooth/bumpy plates so you can have a griddle, sandwich-maker or waffle iron. And the waffles are the nice square ones that fit into a standard toaster -- perfect for making a huge batch and feeding the kids breakfast for a few days!
- Bob's Red Mill buckwheat pancake and waffle mix
-- Rick loves the taste of buckwheat and Bob's Red Mill has the best mixes with all natural ingredients. Now you can buy direct from Bob or through grocery stores, but Amazon packs four bags of the mix into one sturdy box and it's much more economical. And with the state the economy is in, economical is hip and groovy around here!
- French-press coffee in a new, unbreakable carafe
-- this is the only way to make coffee. And since this carafe is truly unbreakable (well, for normal use) we can even bring it with us when we go camping this summer. We had Peet's Coffee and enjoyed every drop of this elixir -- dh gave it up for Lent and I've been cutting way back, so it was a real treat to have real coffee (I know, I know .... we're just a couple of wild-and-crazy folks).
Well, I think you figure out that we had breakfast for dinner. A big bowl of warmed cherries, blueberries and blackberries with a sweet syrup (just added powdered sugar and let the fruit sit in it all day -- makes a lovely syrup) for topping with a dollop of plain yogurt and gorgeous bacon ... and we were all set (and I never had to fight crowds or waste gas looking for stuff). A dozen long-stem pink roses from dh decorated our table and Marian altar quite nicely.
After dinner we watched a family movie --
Saving Sarah Cain 
-- which had been recommended by Kotch (18yo college daughter). What a great movie! The kids wanted to see
Up!
but we like "real people solving real problem" movies for family movie night ..... and the kids and adults were enthralled with this one.
Thank you to all our lovely readers who sent notes of love and prayers .... we appreciate each and every one of you. The kids thought this was the best anniversary ever ... and we had to concur.
That is until next year's anniversary!
... 
