Treize

December has been a pain in the ass. Work has been incredibly busy, which is a good news story except that I'm accustomed to a certain pace to my days. Family stuff has also taken a bit of time and energy, and so my annual December 15th post to say happy anniversary to my sweetie, well it didn't happen.

But it was our anniversary this past week, lucky number thirteen. As I tweeted that evening, 13 years ago I had a date with a guy. And Wednesday night that guy and I were sitting on our couch, in our house, drinking wine with our dog in our lap. I'm amazed and surprised, but mostly I'm grateful for loving, and being loved, more than I ever imagined I would.

Brett and I have traveled a bit, and you know by now of my love for France. My gift from Brett was two french things I'd mentioned. A Le Creuset braising pan in the Ocean color, and Dorie Greenspan's new cookbook, Around My French Table.

You might be thinking "They don't even have a working stove, why would he want either of those things right now?" And to that I can only say, with a long shared history comes a certain amount of faith in the future. It may not be right here, right now, but at some point I'll cook from that book, in that pan. And when I sit down to eat it'll be with the guy who gave them to me.

Happy anniversary sweetheart.