This is the first Christmas E and I have together where we’re actually living together! It’s our fourth Christmas together, but we’ve always spend it celebrating with each others’ families- never as our own family, and both of us are beside ourselves with happiness and excitement about getting to start this part of our life!
Here it is! Personally, I’m crazy about it… and I’ve caught E just staring at it a few times, too. 😉
After work on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we went to a local garden store to pick out our tree… only to find out that the store closed 15 minutes before we got there. In the moment we were disappointed, but resolved to check out a local farm the next morning- and what a jackpot! The people who worked there were friendly, helpful, and even cut me a piece of the trunk for a DIY project later. As we drove away, E declared we would be patronizing that farm every year for the rest of our lives, and expressed interest in moving closer to that part of town because “everyone is so nice!” That good.
I’m 99% sure we did the next part wrong- we decided to decorate the tree that night, because he was leaving on a week-long trip the next afternoon. The branches hadn’t fallen yet, but it was worth it to have it there to look at while he was gone!
We strung one set of lights close to the trunk so it looks like it’s lit from within, and then some on the branches. Since our tree is in a corner, we don’t decorate or put lights on the back. You can’t even tell! Somehow our lights ended up upside down and not connecting to the star, so we went to Home Depot for a tool to correct the problem… but the person there had no idea what E was talking about. We left empty handed to go home and restring the lights.
The red and silver ornaments, the ribbon and the snowflakes came from the Dollar Store. The blue ornaments and our star came from Sears. We had a few conversations about getting a Death Star for the top of the tree… we didn’t go in that direction this year, but it hasn’t been ruled out for the future. 😉
I’m also excited for all of the unique ornaments we’ll collect throughout our life… his mom got us a beautiful sand dollar (pictured below!) and Santa Claus sent us an early present via Etsy to commemorate our engagement. My grandmother has also already called to let me know by next Christmas we will be receiving some of her old ornaments. And from here there will only be more milestones and memories to make. ❤
So there you have it! A little cross section of our first Christmas tree. I may even let it stay up until my birthday this year… maybe.
If you celebrate Hanukkah, I hope you are enjoying the holiday!
Happy holidays to all, and to all, namasté!
Stephanie Jean 