Anniversary thematic motifs

Yes, yes, yes . . . I know, a motif is thematic by nature but I couldn't resist being redundant in my subject title. Don't ask why, it's just better that way.

Anyway . . . moving along . . . today is the third wedding anniversary for my wife and I. I have enjoyed these three years and look forward to a few more (just kidding, I look forward to many more but it's all a manner of how long she'll put up with me). I have a particular observational gripe, though, that I thought I might vent here.

Anniversaries are broken into yearly thematic groups. For instance, 1st anniversary is paper and 2nd anniversary is cotton and so on. This may or may not be the traditional association, as there are many interpretations and modifications to this, a simplistic capitalistic ploy to make married people spend even more money.

The 3rd anniversary, or so I have been led to believe, is . . . (drum roll) . . . leather. Yes, that's right, cow hide. Uh huh. The other two were understandable and even workable. Leather, mind you, does conjure up images in the mind but not ones I tend to hold close when I'm thinking about my anniversary. I also knew that the whips, dominatrix motif would not go over well with my wife. We're sensible folk, you see.

I say the whole thing should be re-done so the thematic items are more practical and sensible. I say something like this:

1st anniversary: cash (as in, receive it from other people)
2nd anniversary: car (same as above)
3rd anniversary: nice tool set, with a good selection of sockets for a ratchet (to keep the car running)

and so on . . . which might mean that the items become something like stainless steel, vulcanised rubber, tempered polyurethene plastic and so on . . .

Eh, it's just an idea.