Chris and I are both very sentimental people. We love to keep things to remind us of days gone by.

Granted, most of these things sit in boxes in our basement, like my cast from when I broke my arm in the 7th grade and his “super-cool” favorite Junior High item of clothing – his denim and plaid vest. So it’s not like we actually look at this stuff – but just the fact that WE know that they’re there…it feels nice – as if we’re in touch with our past. Without letting it clutter up our house.

Thankfully, I don’t think that our nostalgitis is to a point to qualify us for the TV show Hoarders – wow, that show makes us twitch with claustrophobia. And it makes us throw out a few things, just to ensure that we NEVER end up eating family meals on our bed because that’s the only available surface.

(shiver)

Anyway, that being said, we, like most couples, saved the top layer of our wedding cake for our first anniversary. It’s tradition, after all. We forgot about it that first year, but were determined to follow tradition for our second anniversary. However, we bought a house before that happened, so we actually MOVED the cake along with our other frozen goods to our new house.

But, it paid off – we actually remembered the next March. We got it out, thawed it, and cut us a big slice of nostalgia.

And it was NASTY. Not just in a “Oh – that’s not very tasty” way, but more like a “Where is the nearest garbage can because this is coming out of my mouth RIGHT NOW” kind of way.

It was stale, as hard as eating a piece of siding, and as tasty as eating one of those cardboard boxes that is holding the rest of our crap memories in the basement.

In fact, we suspected that it might have been styrofoam all along – just icinged up to look like cake.

So of course we threw it out right then.

Umm, or not.

Yeah. We Ziplocked it back up and stuck it back in our freezer. For some reason, it just seemed like an injustice to throw it out just because it happened to have issues with edibility.

It has been 6 and a half years since that second anniversary, and we have moved yet again. Guess what we still have in our downstairs freezer, right next to the frozen vegetables?IMG_4736

Yeah.

At least it’s in the basement with the rest of our memories.

It’s kind of a joke now, which makes it even harder to get rid of. It’s been around this long – how could we just throw it out, as if it meant nothing to us? As if it hasn’t given us many a chuckle at the absurdity of its continued existence?

I pulled it out of it’s hallowed shrine to photograph it just for you. It was nasty and sticky and I felt the need to sanitize after it’s photography session, but here is our masterpiece:

IMG_4742
Wanna come over for dessert some time?

IMG_4740

I’m pretty sure that some of that icing used to be a nice sage green color. And it certainly didn’t originally look like it was iced by a cement truck.

Please don’t turn this post in to Hoarders. My formerly broken arm would be very upset if they made me throw away my cast.

21 thoughts on “Stale, Decayed, Nasty Nostalgia

  1. Haha!! I love this story! Ours hung out a whole year in our "big game" freezer and suprisingly, it was still delicious! Perhaps because my mom wrapped it in 30 layers of freezer wrap!

  2. This was the perfect post to read during the week that I am cutting out my sweets. Those pics are disgusting!

    I know someone who once kept their dead gerbil in the freezer for months because they kept forgetting to take him out and bury it.

  3. That's just gross!

    Our wedding cake wasn't very good on our first anniversary, but we ate it anyways because its practically the law.

    I say get rid of it!!!

  4. Whoaaaa Rachel! While my human cracked up at this, she told me you should auction it one day like the Seinfeld episode with the royal wedding cake. But seriously, if you need me to dispose of it, "holla", I can take care of it for ya…and the rest of the stuff in the fridge! Aaaaarrrroooooo!

  5. YIKES!!!

    You are so brave.

    And I am so addicted to watching Hoarders. Like you, every time I watch, I want to take a bulldozer to our attic and basement.

    We froze our wedding topper too and ate it 1 year later. After 1 bite, I think I nearly broke a tooth!

  6. LMAO! When my sister got married I was 14 and didn't know about the cake tradition. I found the cake in her freezer and took a big hunk of it thinking it was leftover. I still don't think she's forgiven me. Great story and I promise I wont turn you in to hoarders (that show gives me the willies).

  7. Now I feel like CRAP for throwing mine away within like a week thinking… No way I'll eat this next year, why keep it?

  8. Haha, this is great. You a brave for even TRYING it. Our 1st anniversary is in March and I'm hoping it tastes just as good as our wedding day! Probably not though. :o)

    On another note, Steamfresh veggies are so amazing.

  9. Because I am so nostalgic I have started throwing away new? stuff I know I will never use, never wear, never play with, never polish, never wash, therefore; I have room still for all my old childhood things. I just get a lot a flack from Leo (who still has his teddy bear he got when he waws 3).

  10. I have some lovely pictures of Blake and I trying to eat our's on our first anniversary, gagging, and spitting it out. It was beyond vile. WAY beyond.

  11. I love that you still have your cast! Seriously. Cracking. Up. =)

    It will be interesting to see how this plays out as ali grows up – I have kept many of my kids "art" projects…and now think it's time for me to start throwing them out. Spaghetti man? Fall collage with sticks and crumbly peices of dead leaves? There's a time for everything, and spaghetti man's time has come.

    good luck to you as you preserve all your memories!

    ps…does the cast stink?!

  12. LOL! That's hilarious! It looks a little…squished. :) We actually remembered ours and it wasn't too bad…not great, but not too bad.

    There are hoarders across the street from us. You would not believe all the crap in their yard. I've never seen the inside but I heard from someone who did that there are little tunnels to walk through. Yikes!

  13. We did freeze ours and eat it on our first aniversary and it was pretty good. No way I'd have kept it longer than that though. Have you thrown it away yet. Because you really might want to consider it. You have photos from your wedding in case you get too sentimental about it right?

  14. That is hilarious that you still have a piece of your wedding cake in your freezer!
    I wonder if there's a Guiness Book of World Record record for the longest time some one has kept their wedding cake in the freezer…you guys might be record holders :)
    We tried to eat the top of our wedding cake on our first anniversary, but it wasn't very good…it didn't have any taste at all.

  15. I suddenly feel so much better. Not so alone, you know?

    I am weird about left overs so we didn't even attempt to eat our year old wedding cake.

    I think you are brave :)

  16. Funny! We tried to eat ours a year later, it was horrible.

    I hope that you are letting that thing go. LOL! Or you can varnish it and keep it for a decoration.

  17. There's a rule in clutter control that I believe applies here:

    Toss the item, hang on to the memory.

    (And I'm a packrat.)

  18. I loved reading this. My parents had the top layer from their wedding cake for 30 years! My mom tried to get my dad to eat it the first year and he told her to save it. She tried to throw it away on many occasions and he wouldn’t let her. It then became a joke, what if we throw it out and then get divorced? I’m not sure why they finally tossed it, but they’re on year 42, so I guess it isn’t what was holding them together:)

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