It was a perfect weekend. Our Anniversary could not have been better (other than COVID being eliminated and the ability to actually go away, safely.)

I woke up Saturday feeling great (i.e. no gut issues) so we started the day with a favorite breakfast: Toad-in-a-Hole, sausage, bacon, hash-browns, coffee, and OJ. We would have had mimosas but we are too old to drink in the morning AND have a productive day, after.

We swapped cards and, as a sign of just how freakin’ compatible we are, we had gotten each other the same card (not for the first time.)

After breakfast, we hopped in Mogo and took a ride to our favorite Christmas store in Arlington, VT, about 70 minutes away. We plugged in the address for the store, and Mogo’s navigation persona (“Aya” – as in “A.I.”) took us a different way than we were used to, which resulted in the discovery of an antique and second hand shop of which we we were previously unaware. We stopped, and perused the cluttered aisles (masked the whole time, of course; there were only 3 other people in the whole place,)where we happened upon a couple gems we couldn’t resist purchasing:

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After that, we continued on our way to the Christmas store. Once there, we were pleased to discover a couple items we wanted – one is a Christmas gift, so I can’t share it here, just in case. The other is a new piece for my Rankin-Basin collection, from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas Special:

When we got home, my Mom had left us a delivery of red roses at our front door. How sweet of her.

After a little rest and relaxation, we got gussied up and treated ourselves to a special Anniversary-exception dinner out (we haven’t been out to dinner since my 50th birthday in Provincetown in May) at a place we’d only heard about never been to, the Century House. All the wait staff were fully masked at all times, tables were spread well over 6 feet apart and, because we had such an early dinner (5:00pm), there was only one other party in the whole dining room while we were there, so we felt as safe as possible for an indoor dining experience.

When I booked the reservation on the Open Table app, I selected “Anniversary” as the reason for our reservation. I have selected Anniversary and Birthday in the past, when booking reservations, but nothing ever came of it. This time, however, we were pleasantly surprised when, after we’d finished our dinner (I had GF Lobster Bisque, with a Pear martini, followed by an entree of Lobster tail, asparagus, and rice with a glass of Chardonay; Jeffrey had the french onion soup with a gin martini, followed by an entree of the house burger and fries, with a glass of Malbec) they brought over a chocolate mousse (which was comped) and wished us a Happy Anniversary.

It was a wonderful dining experience and it was great to be having dinner out again. In fact, we may make this our one “exception locale”, and go out every two weeks for an early dinner.

Once we returned home, we mixed up some nightcaps – A Cosmo for me (of course) and a Tanqueray martini for Jeffrey (of course) – and had a zoom cocktail chat with some friends from CT that we would have seen this weekend, had we gone to CT as originally planned to dog-sit for the BFJ and his hubby. (We cancelled because my health has been unreliable and they had tickets to see a show in NYC they didn’t want to miss out on, so they booked a Kennel stay to be safe.)

It was a fantastically perfect day and Anniversary celebration and I am so grateful my health was good enough to allow us such a day to celebrate.

You gotta enjoy it while you can, folks.

Stay safe, all.