First Mensiversary Gifts
It’s fun to celebrate marriage mensiversaries. Rather than make note of it every year, we’ve decided to make note of it every month. This isn’t that abnormal really, it’s just like having a regularly scheduled date night. It’s an excuse to take time out to focus on your spouse and mark it in some way of celebration. Nothing we do is hugely involved or deeply complicated. We simply make a point to do something out of the ordinary or special to celebrate our marriage. We try to do something different every month, but as the months mount it might be hard to keep that up.
Our first mensiversary snuck up on us pretty fast. It’s actually what prompted us to celebrate. I imagine noting the first month of marriage is something most couples notice, and we were no different. Still basking in post-wedding bliss we decided it was a fun tradition to start. Two weeks in Hawaii and Halloween being the first weekend we were back our first month was on us before we’d even really settled back to normal. We decided to get fancy burgers from Bobby’s Burger Palace nearby in Paramus and decided the first mensiversary gift was gourmet hamburgers.
I’ve written about this before, but as time goes by I’m going to try to document every month’s moment. Some are silly and some are born of convenience, but the purpose is always the same; recognize and remember our wonderful marriage.
Tags: celebrating mensiversaries, first mensiversary, first month gifts, first month wedding gifts, gourmet hamburger anniversary, mensiversary, wedding mensiversary
Longhorn Steakhouse Review and Beer List
Me and my wife went to Longhorn Steakhouse for our 15th mensiversary last night.
First impressions for me at most restaurants are formed by the drink list. Naturally I look for beer first, but a nice signature cocktail list is impressive as well. Longhorn did well in that regard, they had a couple of interesting looking drinks and some margaritas. The beer was less impressive, but they did have 10 or so taps and they weren’t horrible. Mostly the expanded standards, highlighted by Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon and Leinenkugel.
As far as the menu, my biggest complaint would be that there didn’t seem to be any beers that cried out to be paired with steak. No porter, no malty ESB. Newcastle Brown Ale would probably be the closest. In essence the beer menu is a national one with very little thought put into it.
The food was pretty good. I actually enjoyed the appetizer, salad and sides more than the steak. I got some firecracker spicy chicken rolls, a Caesar salad, and a loaded baked potato. My steak was a bourbon-glazed bacon-wrapped filet that was cooked medium, although it looked a wee bit more than that. It seemed more a generic steak than a filet, and tasted like it. I guess you get what you pay for, but it does brand itself as a steakhouse so I was surprised that that was the only part I was disappointed in. It also needed more glaze and crispier bacon.
Ultimately stuffed, we passed on dessert even thought it looked delicious.
Tags: 15th mensiversary, beer, beer menus, beer pairing, longhorn steakhouse beer menu, longhorn steakhouse review, mensiversary, pairing beer with steak
Nine Month Mensiversary: Brunch
Skipping around a bit; i posted earlier about my first month anniversary and celebrating it. We’ve celebrated each month in some fashion, but I haven’t quite written them up yet. Well this weekend was nine months and we celebrated with brunch.
Brunch may not seem like a huge deal, but this was never about being a huge deal. We’d been recommended this place, called The Bethwood, as having good brunch, and we had not been out for brunch together since we’d gotten married. Sunday made for a perfect time to do so. It was a lazy day, just hanging out with each other, eating too much food and relaxing. A perfect lazy married Sunday.
The Bethwood was very good; omelettes, waffles, a Viennese table, carved meats, pasta salads, fruits, vegetables, pastries and bagels and breads and cheeses and all sorts of wonderful foods. We got there early, so it wasn’t that crowded yet. They served a complimentary glass of champagne to start too. This actually disappointed me; they chose a Verdi prosecco, which I felt was too sweet for a breakfast champagne. Still tasted good with a little orange juice splashed in it though.
Tags: 9 month anniversary, anniversary gifts, brunch, mensiversary, month gifts, monthiversary, new jersey brunch, nine month wedding anniversary, prosecco, rainbow cake, the bethwood, wedding annivesary
Celebrating Our First Month Wedding Anniversary
Between the amazing wedding and the unbelievable honeymoon to Hawaii, the letdown afterwards was quite harsh. One of the ways we chose to mitigate that was to celebrate each month of our anniversary. We weren’t doing this for excuses to buy huge presents or anything, but simply to recognize and remember.
We declared the one ‘monthiversary’ the gourmet hamburger anniversary. We got burgers from Bobby’s Burger Palace and sat together and enjoyed them. Bobby’s makes great burgers and it’s always a nice treat to eat them. Certainly better than Bubba Burgers out of the freezer.
So nothing overly fancy or heavily planned out. Just a simple dinner to represent one month of marriage bliss.
Tags: bobby's burger palace, first anniversary gifts, first month, first month gifts, gourmet hamburger anniversary, mensiversary, monthiversaries, monthiversary, one month anniversary, one month anniversary gifts, wedding anniversary, wedding anniversary gifts, wedding monthiversaries