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?
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.
Shortly after our engagement, Aaron and I were at Bellevue Square in a stationary shop. He was at one rack and I was at another with my back to him as we quietly read through greeting cards. Out of nowhere, a Buddhist nun with shaved head and grey robe took my hand, then reached out and took my soon-to-be-husband’s hand and placed them together. She said a few words we didn’t understand followed by “Very Happy,” squeezed our hands, bowed, and walked out of the store. We turned to each other and at the same time said, “We’ve been blessed.” Then, hand in hand, we ran out of the store to follow her. Up and down the mall we searched, but she was no where to be seen.
I’ve always wondered why she chose us. I don’t know why I just remembered that story, it comes back to me from time to time. She was right, we are very happy. And very thankful for her blessing.
Most like an arch—an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch—two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what’s strong and separate falters. All I do
at piling stone on stone apart from you
is roofless around nothing. Till we kiss
I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another’s sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight.
The Collected Poems of John Ciardi (University of Arkansas Press, 1997)
6 years after our first date and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Four years ago today, The Husband and I said “I do.”
I’m a lucky, lucky girl.
We didn’t actually get to eat much at the wedding, so on the way to the hotel, we stopped at McDonalds and got Happy Meals. We’ve gone out for Happy Meals every year since, and that’s where we’ll be dining tonight. Such a fun anniversary tradition.
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