The Mr. and I have been on this journey together for a while now, this will be our thirtieth Christmas together. What a blessing. As we've entered into these middle years, we've turned our attention toward valuing one another and the miracle of marriage. It's the best gift we can think of for daboyz and some day, dagrands. I remember our first Christmas tree, decorated with...pew bows. Yup, you heard right! We had gotten married exactly two months before Christmas 1986 on October 25. We had a hand-me-down tree and about 3 for real ornaments to our name. I pulled out the ivory and gold bows which had adorned the pews on our wedding day (do people still use pew bows?) and stuck them on that sad scraggly old tree to plug the spaces between the branches. At the time, it seemed like a stroke of genius! Maybe it was more like a regular old stroke ;) I thought that tree was beautiful. I thought marriage was beautiful and planning a life that would take us all the way to heaven was beautiful.
I was right about all of it.
Today I look at a tree that is laden with ornaments and not a pew bow in sight. Christopher Radkos, purchased every year on our anniversary. Bronner's personalized ornaments...Dean, Sara, Jay, Mac, Donny and now Susan. Little boy homemade ornaments and Baby's First Christmas too. Red sparkly wooden blocks that spell LOVE. Nothing special, just a Target find, and yet, special nonetheless. The sets of ornaments we used to fill the spaces don't fit amongst the sentimental ones anymore. We've tucked those away for another set of newlyweds who some day may need to fill their Christmas tree's branches and may find themselves lacking pew bows.
4 comments:
:) makes me smile....we filled our first tree with plastic candy canes and red bows...each bought in packs of 10 I beleive...for maybe a $1.99ea. intended for use as package toppers... we used them for years! I don't beleive there is now a single one left however this year we are packing up most of the rest of our first ornaments and dividing them up between our kids...we will keep a few for posterity...:) ahhh the memories....Enjoy!
30 years together? You must have been ten years old when you met, eh? :) Looks like everything is under control at the Smith house. It was lovely stopping by .. next time let's have tea. xxx C
Thirty years together? OH..you're counting the dating years before marriage. For a moment there you became older then me!
You have come to a beautiful place, God is so loving!
I loved reading your post today. My spirit felt warmed by the obvious love that has grown over those 30 years...the memories of the meager beginnings, the coming of the babies and now the expectation of the grands. A lifetime of loving that will step into eternity.....it is a beautiful thing! Merry Christmas, Sara! Thanks for letting me drop in.
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