One More

I’m pretty sure I have posted this quote before, but that’s okay. I absolutely love it.

My husband and I got a late start with our Christmas tree this year. What can I say? There’s a lot going on. But last weekend, we finally rearranged the living room, got the tree into position, and pulled out all the boxes of ornaments.

Decorating our tree is quite the undertaking. We have been together nearly 20 years, and over that time, we have collected many, many Christmas ornaments.

Taking the lids off those boxes is a bit like Christmas morning, because each ornament is wrapped in tissue paper or bubble wrap, and each one needs to be unwrapped before being placed on the tree. We end up laughing and holding up the ornament we just uncovered:

“Remember this one?”

“Aww, look at this one.”

“Wow, how old is this one now?”

Some of them are deeply sentimental. One of our ornaments used to belong to my husband’s mother. That one gets handled very carefully, hung on the tree where he can see it but where it’s also protected. One of them was a gift from my mom for me, and that one is also gently and tenderly placed on the tree.

Some of them are just fun: sea turtles or shells from our beach trips, animals from zoo adventures, a glittery butterfly just because it’s pretty, personalized ornaments from amusement parks.

And some of them are mementos from important days of our lives: our first Christmas married, our first year in our house, baby’s first Christmas for our grandkids.

Some of the ornaments were picked out by the kids when they were small. I still remember wandering from decorated tree to decorated tree in the shop that day, letting the kids select whichever one caught their eye. Now, some of our ornaments are gifts that the kids have given to us.

It takes considerable time to decorate our tree. After all the ornaments come the pine cones, some tiny, some large, then the little red bows on as many branches as we can fit them. We play the only two Christmas CDs that we own, and then have to replay them, because we aren’t finished yet.

But when we are done, it’s always worth it. Every year, we say it’s the most beautiful tree we’ve ever decorated. Every year, I take pictures. Every year, my husband says he will miss the tree in the living room when we take it down after Christmas.

And every year, it’s my favorite part of Christmas: unwrapping the ornaments one by one, reliving the memories, small pieces of our lives together hanging on those branches, twinkling in the lights. Our tree is not store-bought. Our tree is us, built one ornament at a time, one year at a time, and even though we are running out of room on the tree, we still add at least one ornament each year.

Every year, as we circle the tree, hunting for an open spot, I tell my husband, “Dear, I think we’re running out of room.”

And every year, he tells me, with a tiny smile as he hooks an ornament onto the tree, “There’s always room for one more.”

Content

What I cherish even more, though, is watching my husband laugh with the kids, and then turn into a big kid himself with the grandkids. His eyes soften with affection and spark with mischief at the same time, and I love seeing him as not only my husband, but a devoted father and adoring grandfather, too.

I went to bed after my husband’s birthday party last night with a happy smile on my face. I felt so peaceful and content, like this is exactly how life is supposed to be.

Birthday Surprise

When we went to bed last night, I pretended I forgot something so I could get back up while my husband was in bed. I sneaked out to the kitchen, where I had stashed some birthday decorations, and I hung a birthday banner on our fireplace mantel, slipped birthday covers over the chairs at the dining room table, and moved his wrapped presents from the guest bedroom closet to the table.

If he noticed all this activity, he was a good sport and pretended he didn’t. This morning, as soon as the alarm went off, I sang “Happy birthday” to him. Given my questionable singing skills, that was possibly not much of a gift, but he smiled and kissed me and said “Thank you” anyway.

I baked caramel-filled cupcakes with salted caramel frosting over the weekend, but for this evening’s celebration, I will stop after work and pick up a cake and some ice cream. I wish we had both taken the day off. Definitely something to consider for next year!

My husband always says that his birthday is not a big deal, and that it’s just another day. I don’t agree. He loves to make me feel special on my birthday, and I want him to feel the same way. I hope all the moving parts come together this evening to celebrate him, make him smile, and help him feel as loved and treasured as he truly is.

Skin Care

I have a co-worker who is in her 30s and who spends a lot of time at my desk, regaling me with tales of her many male suitors, seeking love life advice or just filling me in on her latest adventures. Sometimes I have to ask her to refresh my memory on which fellow she is talking about, and she giggles like I’m senile and have issues remembering, instead of her just having too many gentlemen callers for me to keep up with.

A few days ago, she was at my desk, chattering away, when she suddenly huffed and interrupted her own story to say, “I am almost 20 years younger than you, and I have more wrinkles on my face than you do.” She said it in an accusatory tone, like I was doing something deliberately to affront her.

She ended up asking what I use on my skin, and we got into a whole conversation about skin care. It’s something my mother, from whom I inherited my very fair and easily-sunburned skin, taught me at a young age, and I’m glad I listened. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Moisturizer. And more sunscreen.

After a long and draining work week, it was a wonderful compliment to hear. I feel tired and worn out, and I know it’s showing on my face, but after her comment, I guess it’s not nearly as bad as I thought.

Still, I will be grateful to leave work today and head home. My husband and I have a busy weekend ahead of us, but it’s still a welcome break from the demands and stressors at work, which have been non-stop this week.

No matter what the weekend brings, I will make time to sit back with a face mask and just relax. Gotta keep impressing these younger co-workers, after all!

Decade

Ten years ago today, my husband and I closed on our house, picked up the keys, and drove our first truckload of boxes and furniture to our new driveway. It had been such a long process–nearly nine months of searching online, meeting with the Realtor, walking through countless houses, inspecting every inch, ruling them out one by one, until one finally stood out to us. We could picture ourselves living there. We could imagine the kids loving it there.

We unlocked the front door together on that chilly December morning and took our first step inside. Just like that, it was no longer a vacant house. It was our home.

That evening, after a long, grueling day of driving back and forth, lugging boxes, hauling furniture, transferring everything we owned to our new place, I took a break to hang our Christmas wreath. I snapped a picture of the front of the house, the empty porch. The picture is blurry, likely because I was so tired and worn out from moving all day, but I’m glad I took it. Looking at it now, I smile, remembering how terrified and excited at the same time I was about buying the house, and exhausted and sore from moving, but so damn happy too.

Before we closed on the house, I had fallen in love with an antique-looking, deep cherry wood bed that I spotted at a furniture store. It was too big to store at our old apartment, so I had to have it delivered to the house after our closing date. I still admire that bed, the dramatic, carved headboard, every time I walk into our bedroom.

I can’t believe it’s been an entire decade since move-in day. Maybe no one else celebrates the day they moved into their home, but my husband and I adore our house and put a lot of work into it, inside and out. Our tradition is to celebrate each year by adding something to the house, maybe something small, like a decoration, or plants in the yard, or something quite large, like this year: we are in the middle of tearing down the old deck and building a new one, complete with new patio furniture, solar lights on the posts, little touches to make it ours.

Tonight, I want to take a moment to step into the front yard, to stand where I was when I took that first picture of the front porch, and look back over the past 10 years and how far we have come. Here’s to another 10, then many more, of loving our home together.

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