Celebrating a Decade

This week I am back on The Eagle’s Nest, with a short bit about our 10th Anniversary, which happens to be today.  Yes, I have been married a decade.  A DECADE!

Babyman is rather flustered that he is not receiving presents (my husband gave me a beautiful Mediterranean cookbook at breakfast).  “Is it a special day for me?” he keeps asking.  We continue to explain that it’s a special day for all of us, because if Mommy and Daddy hadn’t gotten married, then we wouldn’t have our wonderful family.  This does not explain the absence of presents, however, so he is consoling himself with the fact that we are going to the annual Ice Cream Social at Babygirl’s school this afternoon, likely followed by chicken fingers at a nearby pub.  Nothing like ringing in one’s 10th Anniversary with a bunch of sticky-fingered preschoolers.

I shall suffer their stickiness today, however, because tomorrow we are throwing a Party.  A real-life, grown-up cocktail Party.  With a caterer.  The kids will stay at my parents’ and a few couples — the vast majority of whom were in our wedding party oh-so-long (ten years) ago — will join us for some libations and (catered) food.

For years I planned fundraising events, most of them for the San Francisco Symphony social set, which means I have eaten many a mini crab cake from a doily-covered tray.  But I have always believed caterers to be the purview of a class of people far posher than I.  The thought of a caterer in my kitchen, all twelve square feet of it, rather tickles me.  The caterer will pass hors d’oeuvres in my living room.  For anyone who’s been in my living room, this is downright hilarious, because my living room is also my dining room and you can reach the table from pretty much anywhere.

Why hire the caterer, then?  Well, for one thing, you have to make a lot of food to feed 18 people for several hours.  This takes a lot of time.  And then you have to wash the dishes, which also takes a lot of time.  And we have two children, who occupy ALL of our time, and the whole thing was starting to feel more stressful than fun, so we decided that handing over the hard work to someone else would be our gift to one another.

It’s a stress-free party!  And since I have nothing to do with the cooking (because of the caterer), I have spent the past month obsessing over my outfit.  Lovely Jess indulged me and threw together a fabulous story-board.  For the full post, click here.