I cannot express how excited I am for Christmas this year. For the first time since we’ve been together (coming upon 9 years) we will be celebrating all of Christmas together. People who are close to me know how important every aspect of this holiday is to me; everything from celebrating the birth of our savior to recreating important family traditions. I’ve also been really lucky to have a young little brother who still believes in Santa so it’s really sweet to see him live in the magic. This year Conor finally gets to be a part of all of it with me and my family.
When Conor picked me up from my parents home my mom had a great surprise for us; our first Christmas tree! My family traditionally goes out to cut down a tree for Christmas, but the past few years I haven’t been able to be a part of it because of college and living so far away. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to this year either she wanted me to be able to decorate a tree with Conor to celebrate in new ways and create new family traditions. The tree she got us is a fake one so it was a little strange to me while we were putting it up but it’s beautiful nonetheless.
When I went to the store to get ornaments I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of colors and types (and prices!). I don’t think I’m too great at mix matching colors and shapes so I just decided to keep my tree basic by using only red and gold. You can’t go wrong there right? I found one box of 100 red ornaments and one box of 100 gold which came with glitter, glossy and matte plastic ornament balls. I also picked up a third box that included both colors but it turned out that I didn’t need 300 ornaments on my tree and returned that box. I think I went a little crazy! I also picked up gold ribbon and 8 boxes of candy canes. My disclaimer for the candy canes is that Conor is in love with anything mint or peppermint so as quickly as I get them on the tree is just as quick as he’ll eat them off! The only thing that is left is finding an angel for our tree. I just haven’t found one that feels right yet, as strange as that sounds.
Finding an angel that reflects our family is really important to me.Since I was a child we always had the same angel and my mother bought her when I was born to watch over our family during Christmas. So looking for a new angel to watch over my new small family (Conor and I) is really important to me. I’m really thinking about making my own with Conor so it’s even more special. Anyhow, Conor helped me decorate our first tree a few days ago and it was the sweetest thing ever. I put on a Christmas station while we were decorating and he surprised me by singing along to Rudolph. I couldn’t take how cute he was because he hardly ever spontaneously sings with me outside of long car rides. After a few hours we finally finished putting all the lights, ribbons, ornaments and candy canes on the tree, and finished the night off with some hot chocolate. The rest of the apartment still needs some Christmas touches but that’s work for another day! Tomorrow we will probably pick up the stuff I need to make my angel and nativity scene. I’m so excited that everything is coming together for our first Christmas!
