Falling in Love: The Honeymoon.

The reception was long and we were very tired by the time the cake was cut and the gifts were all loaded into his parents’ car. We intended to help clean up until his dad told us to get going. We were only driving about 35 miles up the road and staying in a small motel in a sleepy town just off the freeway. We quickly changed our clothes and tossed the bouquet. Many hugs and kisses later we ran for his parents’ other car (we still didn’t have one of our own). Our little brothers and sisters pelted us (hard!) with rice as we crossed the parking lot. 

My new husband reached for the door handle and was greeted with a handful of shaving cream. He was NOT pleased. He pulled open the door and balloons and newspaper exploded from the car. We started moving them when for some reason he opened the glove box. It was also filled with shaving cream. At that point the exhaustion and stress of the day seemed to win. He pulled out the registration papers and stomped over to his dad. "Look what they’ve done!" he fumed. "We can’t drive like this!" His dad calmly took the papers and smiled. It was hard to rile him up. "Why don’t you two just take the other car?" he suggested. "We’ll take this one home and get it all cleaned up." This seemed to appease my sweetie. 

The car kind of looked like this.

He took my hand and led me to the other vehicle. "No more rice!" he commented firmly as we passed our little brothers. He pulled open the door. The car was completely full of all the gifts. The only seat available was the driver’s seat. "I guess we’ll have to rearrange some of these gifts," I said. "Just push them toward the door," he suggested. "We can snuggle up on this side." That sounded like a great idea to me. Seatbelts were only suggested then, not required. We both climbed into the front seat and headed out of the parking lot. I was a little sad that we didn’t have anything to identify us as newlyweds…no tin cans to clink and clatter on the pavement or anything. As we drove off into the night, I dozed against his shoulder. It had been a long emotional day. 

 
When we finally arrived at the motel, he gently shook me awake. "Time to wake up," he suggested. I moaned. I never did like getting up. I looked around at the dark, unfamiliar parking lot. "Better lock the doors," I commented. He rolled his eyes. "You’re paranoid," he said playfully, as he reached into the back to push down the manual locks. We checked in and got our keys. Then we moved the car six spaces down the parking lot until we were parked right in front of the door to our room. "Let me get you inside," he suggested, "Then I’ll come back for our bags." We walked to the door and he scooped me up to carry me over the threshold. Once inside, I started turning on lights and checking the bathroom. He came back in with the bags and reached back to lock the door. 

"What are you doing?" I asked. "Locking the door?" he said innocently. "We can’t leave all those gifts in the car!" He looked puzzled. "Why not?" I couldn’t believe he didn’t see the danger here. "They might get stolen!" I said. "But it will take me 50 trips to bring them in," he reasoned. "They’ll be fine." I started putting my shoes back on. There was no way I was letting all of those beautiful gifts spend the night in the car all by themselves. He sighed and unlocked the door. Twenty minutes later, the gifts were stacked in neat little piles around the room. Again, he locked the door. My eyes swept the room, taking in what looked way more exciting than Christmas morning. 

There were about 100 gifts in that tiny room. "Let’s open some!" He groaned and dropped down on the bed. "Aren’t you ready for bed?" he asked. "Just a few?" I pleaded. He sat up and looked at me. Slowly a smile spread over his face. "OK, you choose." A few turned into some.  Some into many.  And then eventually all the gifts were open. It’s no wonder I love this man! Happy Valentine’s Day!