Five Years of Bliss, More or Less

Yesterday was New Year’s Eve. Yesterday was also our fifth wedding anniversary. The fifth anniversary is the wooden anniversary, which I commemorated by giving Ellie a card, which is made from paper, which is like being made from wood. So how does a couple with newborn twins at home celebrate New Year’s and their wedding anniversary? With two wild childless nights on the town before returning home by 7pm.

Our first night out was Friday night. Ellie had an aunt in town who insisted on watching the kids for us while we left the house. We agreed, but only after insisting that we would leave the house when the twins went down for a nap and would return before they awoke because no one should be forced to care for all three of our children simultaneously by themselves without extensive training unless it’s punishment for some crime, and that crime should be at least a felony.

Our first stop was one of the town’s finer* restaurants, Ted’s Coney Island. If you think we just ate hot dogs and fries for our anniversary, you’re mistaken; we ate gyros and onion rings. The place serves a chicken gyro-type sandwich that’s one of Ellie’s favorite dishes, but we hadn’t eaten there in a couple years since the restaurant’s cuisine is not toddler friendly. Afterwards we went to the mall for window-shopping and to share a giant cookie, and then we returned home by our 7pm curfew, completing our middle-school caliber date.

The aunt left yesterday morning without any major trauma. That night a friend insisted on watching the kids while we went out on an actual anniversary celebration, and we repeated the deal of only if we can return before the twins wake. Since this was our genuine anniversary dinner, we went to a genuine sit-down restaurant, China One International Buffet, which is a sit-down restaurant except for when you stand in the buffet line to get your food. This is an excellent place to bring a toddler since 1) they have many things for them to eat and more importantly 2) they eat free, but we wanted to enjoy a night out alone, and this was the closest we could come to a nice restaurant while staying within budgetary and time constraints.

After gorging ourselves on all-you-can-eat Chinese food, we returned home to find that everyone had been well behaved, except for Tory who insisted on eating before we returned. That was no big deal though, as we put him back on schedule for his final feeding of the night.

With all the kids down and midnight approaching, Ellie and I took the advice of the card I gave her. We turned the lights down low, snuggled together, and dozed. We celebrated the New Year during the twins 2am feeding.

* Here “fine” means “quick and not too expensive.”