Daydreaming of Paris

The husband and I had an actual date on New Year's Day. That's exactly 365 since our last date. We joked that we needed to at least increase that number to two dates in 2012 since our TEN YEAR wedding anniversary is this June.

We were young spring chickens when we got married. I was barely 22. Him barely 25. I had just graduated college 2 weeks before. I know...it is miraculous that we still love each other. Actually, we love each other WAY more now. We didn't have a clue about the world before we got married. In a sense, we did our "growing up" together. We dated for almost 4 years before getting married (remember, I was basically just out of diapers when we met), yet I believe it has truly taken the past 10 years to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with each other. To really understand each other. To be able to look at each other and say "yes, I could live without you. But, I would never want to live without you." It's a great feeling.  

So, back to our recent "date". When talking of our big ten year this upcoming June, we daydreamed about where/what we want to go/do. In a perfect world, we have always wanted to go back to Europe on our 10 year anniversary....specifically Paris. If you have known me for even a nano second, you know my loves go in this order: 1. God 2. Family 3. Paris. To say I love Paris is an understatement. I truly adore that city. I will never forget walking by the Eiffel Tower for the first time or seeing the Sacre-Coeur up on the hilltop. It is just really incredible. Of course, that was also the trip where after roaming about the Louve for only a short bit, I became violently ill...and remained ill the rest of the trip...including a train ride down to Nice...but, I mostly only remember the toilets from that point on.

I digress.

via

 (I would certainly dress the part like the girl above!)

via

However, there is this small little issue. Technically, three very small little issues. We still feel like our children are too little for us to leave for an entire week. I know we are probably alone in that feeling compared to most parents. If it was just Ella, it would be different. But, finding someone to watch our three precious little ones for an entire week would be a huge undertaking even for Super Nanny...especially if the parents were across the Atlantic.

Of course, there is also that little issue not having sold our house yet, but again, it doesn't really matter considering the above concern.

So, the mister asked me if it was ok if he gave me a 5 year rain check...meaning, within the next 5 years, we'd make that dream a reality. And that made me smile.

That is definitely a dream worth saving our pennies for.

But, the question remains: if we can only day dream about Paris for now, then what can we do this year for our ten year anniversary? A quick trip to New York City for 48 hours (another city I love)? Stay local here in Atlanta and go to a spa? Money is definitely of consideration, but we could still do something.

So, can you send me your creative ideas? What would you do to celebrate your first decade of marriage? Meanwhile, I am going to just keep day dreaming of that dreamy hotel I saw on The Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Paris, je t'aime