Happy Anniversary To Us!
/42 years ago, yesterday, December 8th I married the love of my life! Ronnie has been the best thing that ever happened to me. A blessing of LIGHT from Heavenly Father. Has it been chocolates and roses every day? Nope, but we kept at it even during the thorny patches. And we keep at it every day still. He said it best in the letter he left next to the sink in our bathroom before he left for work yesterday morning – on green paper no less. 😊 “It’s been a lot of wonderful growth and we have a lot of fruits to prove it!!” We don’t do fancy gifts for our anniversary. In fact, we don’t exchange anniversary gifts at all. Just being together and going out for a nice dinner is all we desire.
As I look back on our wedding day photos we were just babies back then! Who knew the trials and struggles we would go through and conquer together . . . sometimes not in the best ways. At times we needed help through competent therapists.
On paper we didn’t have a chance, but with the Lord, we have gotten through the past 42 years still intact. We don’t just love each other; we actually like each other and enjoy spending time together! Growing up in an abusive home I had buried many painful experiences. I thought if I buried the abuse deep enough, it would just go away. What I didn’t realize is that my subconscious was reliving all of them every single day. Counseling is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Pulling all the damaging experiences back to the surface to properly process means reliving all the pain and abuse all over again. However, when you’re done, you can draw a line, leave it in the past and move forward in a positive healthy manner. I am a firm believer in seeking professional help when needed! There is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I look up to those who can admit there is a problem and seek to make their lives better. This takes time, effort and a lot of patience. I’m so grateful Ronnie has the patience of Job as I have moved along this journey of healing. I don’t think anyone else would have stuck with me through all the messy bits. We both had things to work through, but gaining the tools necessary to strengthen ourselves, also helped us strengthen our marriage. Instead of focusing on all the things that bugged us about the other person, we learned to focus on the things we could change about ourselves. This helped us see each other in a totally different LIGHT!
They say that opposites attract, and that is certainly true for us. Ronnie is laid back and doesn’t like fancy things. I’m the high maintenance one with the innate ability to choose the most expensive item no matter what we’re shopping for. I promise, I don’t do that intentionally. But he is a good sport and puts up with me, giving me wings to fly, and all the encouragement in the world to go after my dreams.
I love that we were married in December because we both love Christmas so much! We were married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple, and our reception was at The Lion House in Salt Lake City.
I designed and made my dress based on Victorian era design elements. I made almost every dress affiliated with our wedding, and there were many including all the bridesmaids, servers, hostesses, harpist, and more. I also made the dress and ultra-suede jacket I wore to the Temple the morning we were married.
It was the last outfit I had to make and I finished it at 6:30 am the morning of the wedding – just in time to shower and get ready to leave for the temple! Salt Lake is magical during Christmas with all the Christmas Lights on Temple Square.
Ron and I have celebrated most of our anniversaries in Salt Lake at “The Roof Restaurant” at the “Joseph Smith Memorial Building” across from Temple Square and close to “The Lion House” where our reception was held.
The Joseph Smith Memorial Building was originally built as “The Hotel Utah,” and that is what it still was when we were married. The Hotel Utah dates back to 1911, making it one of the oldest surviving commercial buildings downtown. As one of the world’s grand hotels, it was a temporary home-away-from-home to U.S. presidents and movie stars, performers, Supreme Court justices and at least one astronaut. Three presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lived there: Presidents David O. McKay, Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson. My great-grandfather also worked there shortly after he arrived in Salt Lake City as an immigrant from England.
I have many fond memories of this beautiful building. It was the perfect place to stay for the first night of our honeymoon as it was just a short walk from The Lion House where our reception was held. Shortly after we were married, The Hotel Utah closed and was renovated to be used for office space and two restaurants – The Garden Restaurant and The Roof Restaurant, which were both located on the 10th floor overlooking Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. The view of the city is spectacular!
The food was always decent, although pricey, but the view and the sentimentality of the building always took us back each year.
We would save our change in an old glass milk jar all year. We seemed to just have enough to pay for our anniversary dinner from our saved change. When Covid hit in 2020, all the restaurants closed, including The Roof. It did not re-open until just last month. We were able to go again last night and were lucky to get a window seat.
The food is no longer a buffet, but it is even better in my opinion than it used to be. They have the signature “Lion House” rolls they were always famous for, but the yummy honey butter has been changed out for lemon butter and blackberry jam, which was also good.
The prices are not bad for what you get, and the service did not disappoint. We were also given a free piece of their signature chocolate layer cake with a little “Happy Anniversary” chocolate wafer on top to share. If you’re looking for a fun romantic date night, “The Roof Restaurant” will not disappoint.
Christmas is filled with LIGHT because the Savior is the LIGHT of the world, and we both love LIGHT! We also love Christmas decorations. With all the crafting and projects I have going on for not only us, but a few clients I’ve had for years, our home rarely looks like the cover of a magazine.
My stuff fills up almost every room in the house, and especially when I have a big project going on, or even many projects happening all at the same time, it is anything but magical. Bless Ronnie’s heart, he is kind and patient and loves watching what I come up with each year.
He doesn’t mind the mess, because he says it brings him joy to see me creating things of beauty. I start working on Christmas projects as early as August with the hope that I will have them all completed and delivered by December 1st.
This would allow me to get our home decorated and in a calm and peaceful state to enjoy throughout the month.
In the 42 years we’ve been married, I think there have only been a couple times this has happened. This year is not one of them . . . Most of our friend and neighbor gifts have been delivered thanks to Ronnie. I had them all done and ready to go on December 1st. But I have this problem of not being able to say no . . . It’s a good thing I had ours all done, because I’ve taken on many other projects too numerous to list here, all for other people in need of something to be made or created.
I know the Lord has blessed me with the talents to do these things. There is no way I could create them without His help. In fact, many times I am petrified when facing a project I’ve never done before. On my own, I have no idea how to pull it off. But with the Lord’s help and guidance, He knows I am willing to use the talents He blessed me with, and somehow I seem to get things accomplished and delivered on time.
42 years is a long time! I’m so blessed and grateful to live this beautiful, messy, challenging at times, LIGHT filled life with Ronnie! And now I’m off to get my last client project finished so that I can clean the house up, and finish getting it decorated for Christmas. At least I got the tree up over the weekend – although I prefer to get that done the day after Thanksgiving. Better late than not at all . . . I walked around today and took pictures of the beautiful creative mess . . . It’s clean underneath the clutter that moves around on a daily basis. Tomorrow it will all be put away and cleaned up for good, with hopes that I can now “Be Still” and enjoy the rest of the days before Christmas.
My wish for you this week is to complete your busy “To-Do” list and take some quiet time for yourself. If you can’t make that happen quite yet at least take some time one evening and drive around soaking in the calming beauty of the Christmas Lights! Ronnie and I drove around a neighborhood in Salt Lake City last night that I saw on Instagram – The old homes are lovely and well lit. Michigan Avenue between 1900 East and 2000 East. From December 13th – December 25th they have a special “Unite and Light” program each night from 6-10 pm. Tree lighting ceremony is December 13th at 6:00 pm followed by a choir performance, with a live nativity on December 20th. May your days and nights be merry and bright and filled with LIGHT!
Love Ya, Les 😊