Today is my 24th wedding anniversary. And thankfully we’re not only still in love, we also still like each other enough to stand being quarantined together.

Two decades plus somehow feels like both a lifetime and maybe two weeks. Time is slippery that way. Adding to the sense that we just got married is the fact that we’re still using quite a few of our wedding gifts! Makes me feel like a good steward 😉

So today, as so many of us are once again hunkered down at home, I thought I’d revisit some of the stuff we unwrapped lo these many years ago:

• Waffle Iron – My cousin Susie got this for us. Not only do we still enjoy Sunday morning waffles, but that thing makes a mean hash brown!
• Three Brass Candlesticks – These were from our best man and his wife. Very elegant, they sat on the mantle in the first house we shared and continue to have a place of pride in the living room today.
• Blue Pottery Sugar & Creamer – I think Jim’s cousin Todd gave us these. I don’t think they’ve ever actually held sugar or cream, but they sure look nice on the knick-knack shelf in the kitchen.
• Silver Dresser Caddy – No picture of this one–too tarnished! But a VERY traditional gift from the very traditional Virginia Hoover. She was the keeper of everyone’s history back in my part of West Virginia.
• Floral Throw – Dad’s best friend Danny sent us this. Still use it to snuggle on the couch on chilly days!
• KitchenAid Mixer – A gift from Mom. I specified cobalt blue not realizing I was marrying a man who had an opinion about the color of kitchen appliances. I found out, though!

There are other items scattered about the house. Things we’ve held on to and took the time to pack when we moved from SC to NC. But I think they’re more than things. They’re a small testament–witnesses even–of 24 years of life lived together.

Friends and family invested in gifts to celebrate us and to get us started off right. It was a good investment. And I’m so blessed to get to enjoy the dividends of loving and living with this wonderful man each and every day.

Here’s to another 24.