My Favorite Wedding Gift

Weddings are the most fun ever.  Not only do you get to look super hot and have hundreds of people stare at you, but you get presents.  Lots and lots of them.  I mean, I guess marrying your one true love in the sight of God and your closest family and friends is pretty neat too, but today I want to talk about the presents.

Each time I walk around my house and use my wedding gifts, I think about the person that gave it to us.  It’s like we have a little bit of the love of our family and friends sprinkled throughout our home.  When it comes to talking about my very favorite wedding gift, most people who know me well would immediately guess it’s my beautiful red KitchenAid mixer.  After all, when Danny and I were unpacking everything in our first apartment, I hugged that KitchenAid tightly and snuggled it, asking Danny to give me just a few minutes alone with my precious new baby.  Don’t get me wrong, my KitchenAid and I have a bond that is stronger than blood.  My very, very favorite wedding gift though is just a little more precious.

The gift came from my sweet, hilarious Grandma Glenda Rose.  She gave us a beautiful antique tea set that was passed down in our family, but she included in the box my most prized possession.  When my dad was in high school, he carved a masterpiece in his shop class.  It was this wooden block.   He wrote with a black sharpie in block letters, “LOVE IS… NEVER BEING SEPERATED”.  He had carved a boy and a girl and glued them to the top of the block, then drew in their faces and bodies in black.

 

Here are my favorite things about this painting:

1.          Separated is spelled incorrectly.
2.      The boy and the girl are naked.  Apparently they’re cartoon characters from some old show, but I have no reference for them and they…are…naked.
3.        When my grandma sent me this gift, Naked Boy had came unglued from the top.  So although the sign said “LOVE IS…NEVER BEING SEPERATED”, Naked Boy was separated from Naked Girl.

I knew right away that this gift was my favorite ever.  As soon as Danny and I started unpacking things in our new apartment after our honeymoon, we decided that this work of art must be displayed prominently in our master bathroom.  We didn’t have any super glue, and so we just propped Naked Boy up next to Naked Girl.  Every time Naked Boy fell off, Danny and I would both scream “AAAAAAA!!!!!!” until one of us quickly put Naked Boy back up on his rightful place by Naked Girl.  There were a few times where we would place Naked Boy in random places in the house as a fabulous surprise for each other.  One day I found Naked Boy propped up on the toilet seat.  Another day, Danny found Naked Boy waiting patiently on his pillow.  But inevitably, Naked Boy would always wind up back by his Naked Girl. 

When we first got the sign right before our wedding, I pondered the meaning of “LOVE IS…NEVER BEING SEPERATED”.  At the time, I took it to mean that if you’re really in love, you must be by each other’s side 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  I didn’t really like that idea.  I adore my sweet husband, but I also need my girls’ time.  As Danny and I have spent time being married and enjoying life together, I have come to understand “NEVER BEING SEPERATED” as less of a physical, presence thing and more of an emotional, heart thing.  To love Danny is to carry his heart with me, even when I’m not physically with him.  To think of his needs, to talk him up to friends and strangers, and to show him I love him with my actions.  If we ever start to lose that emotional connection to each other, I hope that we can together scream, “AAAAAAA!!!!!!” until we regain that relationship.

So one day our whole sign fell down and Naked Guy flew off (as per usual), but this time Naked Girl came unglued too.  I was very distraught.  I took it as a metaphor that our life and marriage were soon collapse around us.  Naked Guy and Naked Girl sat on our dresser for weeks, just…being separated.  One day I came home from work and my sweet husband had a big smile on his face.  He told me he had a surprise for me.  He made me close my eyes and walked me slowly to the master bathroom.  I opened my eyes to find Naked Guy and Naked Girl super glued back in their rightful places in the world.  I smiled, cried, and breathed a sigh of relief.  Naked Guy and Naked Girl were back together again.  Never to be seperated.