.belated.

When it comes to anniversaries or birthdays Leif and I usually don't buy gifts for each other.  It is not that we don't celebrate the occasion, we just generally prefer to celebrate by gorging ourselves on food from somewhere that we are otherwise too frugal to afford. 

This year for our third anniversary things were different.  Neither of us felt much life celebrating.  Yes, we have a very happy, very strong relationship.  We love each other wildly and we are best friends.  We have so much to be grateful for.  But we also have a dead son and we miss him everyday.  As you can imagine losing a child tends to suck the happy out of many occasions. 

Without even discussing it really, we each made the extra effort to do something special for our anniversary this year.  We went to Palm Springs for the weekend and spent the majority of our time eating and laying out by the pool.  We also gave each other gifts.  Leif gave me a beautiful handmade diorama of a balsa wood bird and a hollow red metal heart.  I carry with me in my purse.

My gift to him was a family portrait, of sorts.  It took awhile to find the right artist to make it because most portrait artists out there are either prohibitively expensive or not our style.  By the time I finally found the right artist there was not enough time for her to complete it before our actual anniversary.  So he has had to wait all this time for his gift, not knowing what it was.

It was completed yesterday, and although I haven't seen the printed version, I have the digital copy.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  More importantly, Leif loves it.

So here it is. 

Leif + Brianna + George

The artist is Nan Lawson.  She was very easy to work with and I highly recommend her.

You can find her work here, here, and here.