What's better than being married for 9 years?

What could be better than married to the love of your life for 9 years, bearing 2 adorable children and living in the best city you can possibly think of?

Chocolate.

Sure, the marriage is great.  Best it's ever been.  Looking forward to years and years more.

But the chocolate.  Oh, the chocolate.

For our anniversary, we toured the Nashville based grass roots chocolate company Olive and Sinclair.  It's stone ground and hand made right here in Nashville and we got to see the whole process.

It starts out with cocoa beans, mostly from Dominican Republic.  The beans are shelled and what remains is called the nib.  The nibs are stone ground by 2 granite wheels that weigh 2 tons each.  It was intresting to see this part.  This is what he called the "old fashioned" way of grinding chocolate nibs but it seemed simple enough and smelled heavenly.  After adding only cocoa butter, the chocolate is tempered and placed into tray molds.  It is also wrapped by hand in Nashville.  It was divine chocolate and at $6 a bar, it well should be.  Jason's favorite was the cinnamon chili flavor but I was more a fan of the burbon whiskey barrel toffee.  Either way, you can't go wrong with Olive and Sinclair.

Afterwards, we finally visited Sambuca in the Gulch.  I'd been hearing about it for a while and it didn't disappoint!  I had the first decent mojito since I left Mexico nearly 2 years ago.  I also sampled artichokes stuffed with goat cheese.  There is just nothing bad about that combination.  We were also treated to a decadent toffee bread pudding a la mode wishing us a Happy Anniversary.  Years ago, we might have toasted a night cap or even visited several other bars before heading home in the wee hours but tonight, we checked our watch and decided to call it a night and go home to pay the sitter.  Yes, the exciting life of parents wildly celebrating their 9th anniversary.

We just decided to leave all the exciting stuff to #10.  When we plan to truly party into the wee hours of the Mexican night.  It might be a little hopeful but that's the current plan for Anniversary/Graduation in May 2013.

I am so thankful for Jason and the plan God has for our life.  We are in a completely different place than I saw us being 8 years ago when I spent our first anniversary with my mom and aunt because Jason was deployed.  We are in a place that I never knew I wanted to be.  I'm thankful for the leader he is.  I'm thankful that he seeks God's council on the path we are taking and feel confident that each step is the right one.  I know I already take for granted all the days he is HERE and with me.  So many of my friends are spending days alone through yet another deployment.  Some of them are spending their lives alone, away from the ones they love.

I know I love him.  I love every minute we have had together.  I love all the things only I know about him.  I love that I can predict his next move and know what he's going to say before he says it.

And I love chocolate.