Reasons to Smile: 5th Anniversary Celebration

Is it possible to celebrate during the coronavirus crisis? We believe the answer is a resounding YES! Today, Stewart shares an emotional story of celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary on March 21, 2020.

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Celebrating an Anniversary during Lock down

By Stewart Aagaard

A lot can happen in four weeks. It's the amount of time it took for me to fall in love with my now-husband and decide to get married, way back in 2014.

It's also the amount of time we all took to go from unease about the coronavirus crisis to a lockdown mentality across the USA.

In these trying times, it's essential to be responsible. My husband and I had been planning on celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary on March 21 with a fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas: good food, fun times, and perhaps a little celebratory gambling. Naturally, the constant news updates during the last few weeks made us question if a weekend away was the right choice.

Ultimately, we decided a weekend mini break would be irresponsible, and it seems everyone agreed with us. The casinos are now closed, and Las Vegas is currently a shadow of its former self. So, what to do instead? We're a week into our self-proclaimed social isolation plan and haven't left home since March 15. The challenge was on: could we celebrate without leaving the house?

Like many other people across the world dealing with the coronavirus crisis, we wanted to get creative and ensure we had a great time at home. We decided on an experiment: could we bring Las Vegas to us? Ready the playing cards and poker chips, chill the Sauvignon Blanc, play the beats, set our lighting to 'atmospheric,' and embrace what we love most about the casino vibe? Yes, we definitely could! We planned our Vegas experience to start at 8 pm.

What else? We wanted our friends and family to celebrate with us too. Unusually, we're now hearing from our family more frequently than ever. Believe me, I'm not complaining. We arranged a midday Skype video call with friends and family near and far, and all raised a glass to good health! It was a very sweet gesture.