Happy Fathers Day
I always knew Mr. H would be an awesome Daddy.
I’m so happy to be right.
Happy Fathers Day!
Lucky Girl
She’s got her Daddy’s eyelashes
Marriage
It was a long day that followed a long night. We were both frazzled, exhausted, irritable, and in that careful, walking on eggshells, mode of interacting – trying, somewhat successfully, to avoid snapping at each other over nothing.
I was on the couch working on my laptop while rocking the baby in her chair with my foot, and he was at his desk typing at his computer.
There was something about his slouch, the weary yet determined posture, that triggered my brain to fast forward fifty years and I saw him in his eighties – and then it washed over me – this overwhelming feeling of contentment with my life and our future together.
I’m a lucky girl.
The Sweetest Gift
I didn’t put a tree up this year. I couldn’t deal with it.
Just the idea of driving 35 miles to our storage unit in Auburn to get the tree, and then shoving all the boxes we’ve already packed out of the way to put it up — only to have to pack everything back up again while we’re in the middle of packing up the house to move… It all felt like too much.
Besides, we were spending Christmas Day at my Mom’s house, anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I’m like a kid when it comes to Christmas, but I’m also under-rested, over-stressed and I have a living room full of boxes. Once the baby comes, we’ll decorate no matter how tired I am.
And then snow happened. Apocalyptic snow in Seattle terms. The entire city is shut down. So even when I started to think that maybe a little Christmas twinkle might be nice, it wasn’t happening.
Christmas morning I woke up to this:
While I was taking a nap on Christmas Eve, the husband braved the snow and hiked to the nearest drug store (which was nearly out of everything because of the snow shutdown) to buy their last box of lights and a few other items. After I fell asleep that night he wrapped the lights around our tripod easel, added in a trio of stuffed animals, two chocolate bars, and topped it off with a tiny stocking that contained a beautiful pair of earrings.
My guy is such a romantic.
What touched your heart this holiday season? And what was the sweetest gift you ever received?
The Ornament
Every year for Christmas, my husband and I pick out a Christmas ornament together. We’ve been doing this since before we got married, and it’s become a cherished part of our Christmas tradition.
We try to choose something that is representative of our year together, or at least an occasion during the year. And we try to find something that is not too fragile. There have been years, and this might be another one, where this ornament consumes the entirety of our minuscule Christmas budget. But even when money is tight we still find a way to make the holiday special and memorable.
The ornament above was from my birthday last year, and commemorates a trip when Aaron took my mom and I on a cruise out to Blake Island for a Native American feast and dance. We’re still on the lookout for the perfect ornament for this year. Perhaps something baby oriented? We’ll see…
We plan to continue this tradition with the baby as well, buying her an ornament each year that memorializes an event and the year. Then, when she’s grown and ready to go off on her own, she will already have a starter set of Christmas ornaments.
