James

I am looking for gift ideas for our anniversary that is coming up in October. We are a gay couple and will have been together for a total of 12 years. For our tenth year anniversary, we decided to further cement our relationship by getting married in Canada on our tenth anniversary. We are American, so unfortunately the marriage doesn't count where we live, but we do have a legal document that we are wed.

I am usually fairly creative with gift ideas. For example, last year, for our 11th (relationship) /1st (wedding) anniversary, I got him shares in a steel company. While this may seem a bit unromantic and not very thoughtful at first glance, it really was. The traditional gift for a 1st anniversary is paper and the traditional gift for an 11th anniversary is steel. Thus, the purchase of stock in a steel company combined both traditional gifts representing our dual anniversary.

For our upcoming 12th/2nd, I am drawing a bit of a blank. The traditional gifts are 2nd - Cotton and 12th - linen. The on the "modern" gift list, the gifts are 2nd - china and 12th - pearls. We already have china and table settings, which could combine china and linen. Additionally, I'm the one that is more into home decor than he is, and I wouldn't want to give him a gift that would seem more for me than him. The only other thing that I can come up with is clothing, such as a linen suit and dress shirt combo, but he already has this and buying a non-"fashionista" clothing as a gift just seems too much like a cop out.

Any creative, unique and symbolic gift ideas out there? By the way, next year's will be much easier as a nice fur accented leather coat (which he has been wanting) will perfectly fit the traditional 3rd's gift of leather and the modern 13th's gift of fur.