Today marks two years of married life for my husband and I.  It’s amazing how much can be packed into two years: a wedding, a honeymoon to Europe, a cross country move, a handful of jobs, a few dozen arguments, three trips back west, thousands of text messages, hundreds of cookies, one trip to the emergency vet, and many, many kisses.  A new life.

The last two years started with the picture above and below is a glimpse into two years of wedded bliss (most of the time).  

{Wouldn’t this be the perfect Christmas card picture if these were actually our kids?   We’re just loving on our nephews during their visit last year.}

{Prom pose.  My favorite.}

When I worked with an older population my favorite question to ask my patients was what their secret was to marriage, which usually spanned at least four decades.  Their answers varied from the funny (“We agreed whoever left first had to take the kids”) to the faithful (“We put God first”) to the cliché (“Communication is key”).  I am still working on my answer to that question; hopefully in another 50 years I will have had the experience to truly impart wisdom to the younger folks.  As for now, I realize marriage is not made up of big vacations and iconic moments (although they are certainly memorable), but the everyday rituals that warm my heart such as a husband who cuts up carrots and fruit every Sunday for weekday lunches, silly nicknames, a wife who always puts her husband’s vitamins out in the morning, and leisurely Sunday mornings in bed with coffee. 

What’s your secret to a long and happy marriage?