The Perfect [anniversary] Gift.

Seriously, why is it so hard to come up with a gift idea for a man.  I could think of a million things my husband could do for me for our anniversary, yet it took me weeks of searching to figure out what I was going to give him! All I knew was that it had to be perfect.  And Cheap. I may be a working woman, but I am definitely on a budget.

I thought for a while about things my husband may have mentioned or things that he enjoyed and I realized that it had been so long since we had spent time together NOT being parents that I wasn’t really sure what he liked anymore.  So, we obviously needed some alone time.  So for the first part of my gift, I made reservations for Okuma, a local military “resort” here on Okinawa.  I knew we’d have to take little man, because there’s no way I’m ready to leave him with anyone overnight yet, but at least it would get us out of the house for the weekend and out of the everyday routines we’ve fallen into.

Keeping up with the latest craze, I scoured Pinterest for gift ideas. I stumbled onto The Dating Divas and almost immediately found what I was looking for. A Passport to Love.  A homemade gift that required plenty of thought and love and would guarantee a date with my husband at least once a month for a year… Sold.  And it was cheap! For now at least. I made a list, using some of the ideas listed on the website, of all the places we’d go “visit” in a year. Mikael has only opened his August adventure so far, so I can’t spill the beans yet, but I will keep you posted.

Anyway I printed the passport, put it all together and added Mikael's information.

I also printed the airline tickets to all the places we were going. And then I decided to add a few tidbits about each country. I printed each country’s flag, a map, and a picture that I thought reminded me most of that country. (This particular month also included tickets to the wine festival!!! See the Italian theme there? )

I also bought a pack of blank thank you cards ( the only purchase I made for this gift) and then I made a card for each date/country. On top I wrote the destination and on the bottom half, I wanted to remind my husband that no matter where we go in the world (which could be anywhere with the military!) I will always love him. I then wrote 12 different reasons why in each card, so he could be reminded each month.

I put them all together, bundled them up and added a not and voila!

He loved it!  We’re going to “Italy” first, so stay tuned and you can travel the world with us! =)

 

Our Trips

 

Italy
Greece