She loves things like Princess Diaries, Sex in the City, etc, and has always commented that I don't plan any real dates with her. We both don't, we're just really busy people, but we still do everything together and the spark is still hot.
Our anniversary fall on a Sunday, which is perfect because I can plan a Saturday-Sunday adventure. Normally I'd be working Saturday, but it's an overtime day and I don't have to work those. So my plan, even though it's expensive, is a night at the Waldorf in NYC with Park Ave views. And because she has always wanted to have "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I can make a reservation at Blue Box before we go either for that Saturday or the Sunday after our stay at the hotel. For that night I'll get us tickets to Moulin Rouge! or possibly The Lion King, which she's a fan of, not sure which would be better for an anniversary, leaning towards the first (but the reviews for Lion King are really good).
Dinner I am not sure about. All in it's going to cost a lot, but with our household expenses, our deal is my paycheck goes to our bills and part of my overtime pay and the rest typically I would invest in things like the Roth, the 401K I have from USPS, and a brokerage account, but I am free to use whatever money of those funds for whatever I want. She puts in her pay and is free to do whatever she wants with whatever is left over between our two checks (around $8,000 a month after taxes, not counting my overtime pay). We also have plenty in the bank so it's not like it'd be hurting us in any way.
So I could use some dinner ideas. Unfortunately, we tend to do things like Popeye's. Like last night at 1am. For the record, I hate that kind of food, I'd rather not eat, but she and her sister who lives with us love it, so we do lots of fast food (part of the reason I am riding my mountain bike 15 miles a day after work). When we do "something nice" we tend to do something like Olive Garden, which is fine, but I'd really like to at least go up one level with our culinary experiences. I am working a LOT at this new job 58.5 hours a week, so it'd be nice to do something nice once in a while, and definitely on our anniversary. She likes Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Peruvian (which she just calls food since she's from Peru, lol, Italian, and occasionally American. Maybe something for $200-$300?
And what's a good 12 year gift? Alexa says silk, linen, or pearls. Leaning towards pearls from that list, but do people still wear pearls?
Thanks!!!