A Parenting Note: The First Few Weeks

Almost 6 weeks ago now (has it really been that long?!), we finally got to meet our son in person. 31 hours after my water broke, his tiny flailing body (complete with wide-open eyes and a crying mouth) was placed into my arms.

And it was SO worth every minute of pain, uncertainty, and downright deliriousness (primarily from a lack of sleep and food) for that one incredible moment.

The amazing moments with our son continue each day, too. From the first time he held up his head to the way he now follows me across the room with his eyes and turns his head to talk to me. What a precious, wonderful (AMAZING, AWESOME, ASTOUNDING, OUTSTANDING etc.) gift from Above.

If nothing else, please allow me to say that if you are married and able to have kids, you should. Period. There is nothing like it in this whole world.

Sure, my home is no longer spotless (if it ever really was) and my body may never be quite the same (kangaroo pouch, I'm looking at you!). Even as I started typing this post today, I noticed poop on my sleeve from this morning's diaper blow out.

Whatever! It's only a little poop...

These trivial frustrations dissolve when compared to the enormity of this tiny person's physical and spiritual care being placed in our charge.

Truly, a learning curve exists when it comes to having your first kid (nursing, diapers, schedules, etc.). But what has become more evident to me in the last week or so (as the initial fog has worn off) are the amazing spiritual pictures God paints for us through parenting.

As I have the time, I hope to share some of what He's shown me through my new role as a mom. For now, though, I hope you are all well and enjoying your summer. We are enjoying it here at The Shore.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
<3 Mrs. D.

Merry Christmas from The Shore

It's Christmas Eve... can you believe it? As I waited for Red Beard to come home from work today, I snapped a few shots of what Christmas Eve looks like at the Shore this year. I'm tagging it to "Memory Lane" because I'm certain next year's Christmas Eve will look very different--especially with a little one around!

Oranges and clementines always scream "Christmas" to me. (This year, we were lucky enough to snag a pomegranate, too!) Red Beard loves Calvin & Hobbes, so this book always makes its way out of storage this time of year.

All the presents are under the tree. Well, except the present that Snoopy is guarding in the chair. I wrapped the last of Red Beard's presents this morning.

Our stockings are stuffed and hanging--from our coat closet door instead of the fireplace. We learned the hard way last year how much fun Kitty thought the stockings were when they dangled from the fireplace!

Speaking of Kitty, she is napping on an extra sheet of wrapping paper I cut for her as soon as I started wrapping gifts. It's my strategy for preventing her "help" while wrapping, and it usually works.

The pickled shrimp are marinating (recipe from Pat Conroy's Recipes of My Life). If you love shrimp and you've never had pickled shrimp, I cannot recommend this recipe enough!

Our Christmas morning bread ("Pulla") still proofing in a butter baking sheet. Baking it today so tomorrow morning is more relaxing!

And a Harry & David pear--part of a gift my parents received from someone. I'm certain this was an expensive pear, but it is honestly the best pear I've ever had!

A view from the couch. I may have had George C. Scott's Christmas Carol playing while making bread and wrapping gifts. :)

I hope everyone has a safe and jolly Christmas this year, celebrating the birth of the Child who would die to save us from our sins.

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."

-2 Corinthians 9:15

The 12 Dates of Christmas

I originally thought the title of this post sounded like the title for a Hallmark movie. With a quick google search, I discovered that it is the title of a movie, only it's produced by ABC Family.

Rest assured, this post has nothing to do with Mark Paul Gosselaar (no matter how much I may have loved Saved By the Bell as a pre-teen) or with any sort of re-living our days, sort of Ground-Hog Day type of plot.

I just wanted to share with you what Red Beard and I will be up to this Christmas.

The Low-Down: Since I'm into my second trimester, and Lord-willing this is the last Christmas before Red Beard and I have a kid, we decided to make this season extra fun for the two of us. Usually we are both swamped with work, but this year I am taking full advantage of my homemaker status by planning 12 dates for us during the Christmas season.

As you probably know from last year's post (Do You Have a "Third World Romance?"), Red Beard and I don't really have that much money for traditional American dating. (Read: "Restaurant and movie theater visits are rare.")

These 12 dates will be no different; they will surround activities that are either free, cheap, or are already in the budget (like getting a Christmas tree).

I can't tell you all of them right off because several of them are a surprise to Red Beard (per his request). Don't worry: He knows about the Christmas tree one already. ;)

Anyway, the goal in all this is to have fun together--whether serving or or shopping or eating or just hanging out. Some years it seems like the entire Christmas season just slips by because we can barely keep our heads above the water.

Last year I set up games and books and they were never even touched...

I think Christmas should be more relaxing than that. And hopefully, this year it will be.

Make some time for your loved ones this Christmas season. ~Mrs. D.

First Time Camping?

This past week was our first time camping together as husband and wife. We've gone whitewater rafting, hiking, kayaking, etc. together--but not camping.

Other plans of ours had fallen through at the last minute, and since Red Beard had already taken the vacation days, we thought, "Let's go camping!"

Here are some highlights from our trip:

We borrowed a tent the Taj Mahal of 1980's tents from some friends...

Sans instructions, it took us an hour-and-a-half to put it up. Thankfully Red Beard had packed some paracord that he employed to tie up each "U"--or we would've been eating those metal "U's" in the middle of the night!

We had to start our fires with wet wood thanks to the rain, but our foil pack meals tasted excellent.
"Calling all bears! We've got perch here!"

When we were planning this spur-of-the-moment trip, I ignored one of the cardinal rules of trip organization: making a list. This led to my really cool improv footwear for hiking a steep trail: tall hiking socks and pink crocs, baby! I wonder why I got so many second looks from passers-by?

We also saw plenty of deer, met people from all over (the U.S. and abroad), and ate perfectly toasted marshmallows. Pretty cool!

Put it all together, and what have you got? A fun, relaxing time spent together in the quietness of God's creation. It was great. I even fell asleep while we were sitting under the trees, because it's so peaceful in the middle of nowhere.

The peacefulness of the woods reminds me of the peacefulness we can have in our lives if we're living where God wants us to. Such a pleasant place to be! And as much as I may fight being in that place (because I grow discontented or weary with the set-up), there is truly nowhere I would rather be than where God wants me to be.

Go get yourself a spot in the woods, y'all!
--Mrs. D.

A Good Time to Praise God

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were invited to play and sing at a country revival service. (He plays, and we both sing. Music is how we met!)

At one point during the speaker's message, he called the audience to praise God during difficult times. He shouted, "Have you thanked God for that extra mortgage?" A couple of murmurings and "amens" ensued from the crowd. He pushed further, "Have you thanked God for that divorce?"

"Yes!" cried one enthusiastic listener.

Everyone laughed.

That poor woman was completely serious about her answer, but it was really funny. The speaker got a good laugh, too.

Now, I've been reading through the Psalms since some time in February. I started reading one Psalm per day, because I felt God leading me to it. And certainly, I need to develop a deeper, more consistent inclination towards praising God--in good times and in bad.

Psalms 111 was a good reminder to me this morning that God is good. So many people (myself included) grew up in a church world of superstition that propagated the notion that "good works and obedience to God ensures good things will happen to you." It may have never been uttered, but that attitude was generally supported.

The Bible does not guarantee us that, my friends.

Job, a "perfect and upright" man, "and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1), lost everything he had. 

Yet, what was his prevailing attitude?

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him." (Job 13:15)

Other great men in the Bible, like John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul, lost their very lives while spreading the Gospel. 

And King Jesus, the perfect man, was crucified.

How are we supposed to respond to that kind of behavior? Did Jesus deserve to die on the cross? What was he guilty of? 

Nothing!

But "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28).

Think for a minute about what would have happened if Christ had not died on the cross. What would our lives look like? 

Mine would be a hot mess!

Truly, Christ's death was excruciating. His own Father could no longer look on Him. I can't even imagine what that must have felt like. 

But as a result of his death, as a result of his loneliness and suffering, we are able to commune with God.

So was His death not "worked for our good"?

Some of us think that when something "bad" happens, God is trying to punish us for something else bad that we've done. Or we sin and, even if we pray and ask forgiveness for it, we go around waiting for something "bad" to happen to us in return.

Though we would, in reality, deserve it, God is not petty like that. He is not out to get revenge on us. If "bad" things happen to us, it doesn't automatically mean we did something wrong. 

We may not be able to understand those hard times in the moment. I can tell you countless difficulties in my own life that did not make sense at the time. There are still some that don't make much more sense than they did years later.

But I have to trust that God is still good. That my circumstances, whether they seem to be or not, are being worked out for my overall good. That is why the Bible tells us "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thess. 5:18).

Surely, the Lord "hath made wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion" (Psalms 111:4).

Any time is a good time to praise God.

--Mrs. D.

An Evening Sigh

Last night, my husband and I decided to have several hours of "no technology" time.

We did not watch a movie or kill time staring into our computer screens. We did not make phone calls or text our friends. We did not even play classical music for background noise.

The living room was completely silent, save the rustling of pages and the occasional laugh or gasp from my husband, who was absorbed in book number six of Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. He had taken his shoes off, propped his feet up, and laid himself back, deep into our red and blue striped sofa.

Immersing myself in the ironing and cutting of fabric pieces to assemble into a summer quilt, I eventually loosened my mind from the vice of the day's troubles and allowed it room to breathe. The weather was warm enough for us to open our front window--an action that permitted a cool, spring breeze to periodically sweep through our apartment.

Kitty, of course, perched beside the window to listen to the chirping birds outside, to chirp back at them whenever they sang, and to monitor them as they busily made nests and gathered food for themselves and for their little ones.

From time to time, my husband would share the latest development from his story and I would update him on the progress of cut fabric. The final tally was 139 out of 300 pieces.

At one point, I moseyed into our kitchen to mix up two tall glasses of strawberry-limeade, a pleasant reward from last year's canning efforts. The sweet crimson tanginess of liquid poured over ice offered us a sublime sense of hope for the warmer seasons to come.

It was an evening well spent, full of tranquil surroundings and calmness of mind. That is what home should be.

Game Night Salads

My husband's had a rough couple of weeks, filled with big, important decisions and some very deep personal matters--not to mention school and work. (Three cheers for burning the candle at both ends!) What better way to ease the pain than a family game night?

We don't have game nights very often. In fact, in the last four+ years of marriage, we've had only three family game nights.

1. The first one included a deck of Hello Kitty playing cards, leftover from my college years, and an Andy Griffith Show DVD. While watching the show, we played a game that I had never played before ("Spades"), and I lost even worse than I lose when I go bowling. And I am not good bowler. 
2. The second game night included a game of "Risk" and a batch of fresh mango salsa. We found out that I am much worse at playing "Risk" than I am at playing "Spades," believe it or not. And I also may have had a slight meltdown as a result of losing so horribly... Losing at a game I didn't even want to play in the first place. 
3. The third game night happened last Friday. It involved my Valentine's gift--the gift of "Scrabble," which I actually find to be a funny gift since my husband swore for years he'd never play against his English teacher wife. I think my willingness to play (and epically lose) "Risk" last year helped my cause. (Hey, it's fun and educational.) And my husband is actually a worthy opponent. Except when he tries to invent new rules.

One element I have found completely essential to a successful game night (and many other events in life, too) is good food.

Game night food should be finger food, at least if you're planning to eat while you play. It's a good idea to eat while you're playing "Scrabble," by the way, because sometimes it takes a player some serious thought time before putting down his or her pieces on the board.

Since we generally eat healthier these days, and since lettuce and strawberries were conveniently on sale last week, we had mini taco salads and strawberries with dip. It was light and fresh and delicious. Lovely!

Taco Salad

Taco Salad is a beautiful thing for the simple fact that you can cater it to your personal preferences. On our taco salads, we put black beans, simple guacamole (1 avocado + 1 lime's worth of juice + 1 Tbs. of nonfat yogurt + salt), homemade corn salsa, cheese, green onions, and pickled jalapenos.

I made mini taco shells using small corn tortillas and a muffin tin. (You can google "make mini taco bowls" and get a bunch of different ways to do it. I think this website is the most helpful. We used method #5. Also, I would recommend using small flour tortillas like she does in the tutorial because the corn tortillas we had on hand kept cracking.)

Leftovers also make a great lunch the next day. Just use Fritos if you run out of shells!

Fruit Dip

Ok, the best ever fruit dip is actually a package of softened cream cheese whipped with a jar of marshmallow fluff. But if you're watching your waste line, well, at least not wanting to witness the expansion of said waist line... and you can't control yourself around the best ever fruit dip... I'd make a different kind. So I did.

I basically made this recipe, but I grabbed a single-serve container of plain Greek yogurt (I had a coupon for a free one!) and added about a Tbs. of honey. To make clean-up easy, I didn't even put it in a different container. So my strawberries and dip was not pretty...

But it tasted pretty good.

Again, it's not a prize-winning recipe in my book. It would stifle a craving, though. And stave off the five pounds I would certainly have otherwise gained last Friday night, because I can literally eat the best ever fruit dip with a spoon. And have done so several times. (UPDATE: If you want a healthier SUPER YUMMY fruit dip, try this recipe for Caramel Yogurt Dip.)

>>If you want a list of other healthy game night finger foods, try this list here.

Until next time,

P.S. I won!

Trust and Trucks

What does trusting God look like?

I look at it like that scene from The Bourne Ultimatum with Jason Bourne and Simon Ross (the newspaper reporter with inside information). Ross is being followed by several hit men while he's on the phone with Bourne. Since Bourne has been trained to be a hit man also, he knows how to get Ross out of this potentially fatal situation.

You can watch the clip HERE. [Warning: There is violence and some language in this clip.]

At one point, to get Ross out of the line of fire, Bourne tells Ross to "tie his shoe." Ross obeys, and stays safe. Later in the scene, however, and a part not shown in this clip, Ross fails to do what Bourne tells him to do. As a result, Ross gets shot and killed.

When God tells us to do something, we need to trust Him and obey what He has to say. We may not understand why God impresses upon us to do a certain thing, but we need to do it. We need to be sensitive to it and yield our hearts to what He has to say to us.

Like Jason Bourne in the above clip, God sees more than what we can see. He exists outside of time, and He is omniscient. Pretty reliable, wouldn't you say?

[A FEW CAVEATS: I am not promoting the idea of taking an emotional trip. I am not discussing doing something that violates God's Word. We need to be vigilant to evaluate our motives, taking matters before God in prayer, and often asking others to pray with us over a specific matter.]

If you would like a personal example as proof, here is a story from our lives. Around mid-December, God started revealing some poor practices we had developed with our money. After much consideration, I bought a planner to write down all of our bill due dates and amounts. I also worked on a spreadsheet in Excel to evaluate how much we were spending versus how much money we take in. I do this from time to time, but I had not really evaluated our finances since September.

This is my planner. (I know. I'm such a girl. lol)

Beginning in January, after we took all of this into account, we cut out extras like our weekly lunch at McDonald's (yes, that dollar menu adds up, y'all). We weekly put small increments of money into savings. We took several other steps to start saving money here and there. We thought we were doing pretty good.

Then, it happened.

Wednesday this week, our only vehicle wouldn't start. My husband came home from work. He changed clothes, and when we went back outside to run some errands around town in the truck... nothing. Nada. It wouldn't turn over.

He tried replacing one fairly inexpensive thing that he hoped it might be (chiefly due to it's cheapness), but to no avail. The truck wouldn't start. It had to be towed.

[Sing it with me, Sinatra fans! "It had to be towed. It had to be towed. We tried to repair, but to our despair it died in the road..."]

However, because we started watching our spending, because of the way things worked out with the garage (i.e. we found and bought a cheaper part for them to put in), because it happened close to payday, we have the money to fix the truck. Praise be unto God!

Now, I'm not saying the current situation is "all I've ever dreamed for." My take on trusting God is not a message of the prosperity gospel (i.e. a "do this and you'll be rich" kind of thing). And I'm not saying I always trust God like I should.

Would I rather have kept the money in the bank instead of giving it away? You bet!  Is it still going to be a tight couple of weeks as a result of this situation? Absolutely! Do I know exactly how we're going to "bounce back" and pay for everything this month? Nope! I sure don't! We will have to trust God with all of that.

But here, by no coincidence, are the first words that I read in my Bible today:

"O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust." (Ps. 7:1a)

>>What are you trusting God with today?

Taster's Choice

As my hand steadily lowered the ivory curtains to cover the dusky darkness threatening to settle in outside, my eyes lingered on our neighbor's car. My face undoubtedly held an expression--most likely a grimace--of sympathy mixed with the heaviness which felt like a thud in my heart.

In the same way that I knew, after embracing her nine years ago, I would never see my grandmother again on this side of eternity, I knew that last night would be the last time I saw any trace of our neighbor's existence. We had to come to know him over the last several months, often exchanging food and conversations. We made him some jelly; he bought us a pie. We found and rescued his escaped pet bird one day. He and my husband talked late into the night about theology on our back porch.

He was our friend.

But his life has taken a severe turn as a result of some very poor choices. His new path is long, and it is lonely. It is mired by his obstinance and darkened by his arrogance. My heart aches for his family, who remains to pick up the shattered pieces of his former life, scattered among their home, his school, and our apartment complex.

Like Rory Gilmore, I would like to think that some good exists within every person. The Bible tells us that humankind by nature is sinful, though (e.g. Rom. 5:12). And I've seen the truth of this first hand.

Good does exist, but it exists outside of ourselves. I want you to realize, though, that there is HOPE.

Yes, sin is in our nature. 

But we are not automatons! If anyone is in Christ he can go against "the flow" of his nature, because he can choose not to sin. In other words, we ALL have the ability to CHOOSE God's ways and to FOLLOW His desires in ALL things.

That is what I wish for our friend and ex-neighbor to choose in the future. And that is the same wish I have for your future, whoever you are and wherever you are.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusteth in Him." (Psalms 34:8)

Resolutions Past and Present

One of the years my grandmother was going through chemo (she went through both chemo and radiation several times), my uncle helped her make a list of resolutions for the new year. Instead of resolving to do anything like "get fit," which obviously would have been unrealistic for her, my uncle suggested simple, yet attainable things like "put your toes in the sand" or "smell a box of new crayons." He intended for her to stay hopeful and motivated while she was going through a very trying time.

This is a picture of my grandmother the last year she was physically able to walk to the peer. Isn't she beautiful? There was a huge storm brewing (which is why she's holding down her hat), but we arrived at our destination just before the storm did. My dad picked the two of us up at the peer. This was a pretty proud moment for my granny.

My husband and I are in a weird phase of our lives, so I thought it might be fun to have our own list (similar to my grandmother's) to post in the apartment. It is not exactly a traditional resolution list, perhaps, but we are not entirely traditional people. As I am sure you will notice, some points on this list pertain to both of us; other points pertain to one or the other of us. See if you can figure out which ones belong in the "His," "Hers," or "Both" categories (I will give you the answers below).

2014 Resolutions: 
1. Eat more fish tacos 
2. Finish reading The Coming Prince by Sir Robert Anderson 
3. Go to a baseball game 
4. Go ice skating 
5. Ride a horse 
6. Sew a dress 
7. Practice target and skeet shooting 
8. Read an entire book on the beach 
9. Hike a very specific, extremely difficult mountain trail (a trail unspecified for privacy's sake)
10. Visit more historical places 
11. Purchase and consume REAL maple syrup
12. Make and try fish jerky
13. Cook and eat more Caribbean-inspired food 
14. Make a sandcastle 
15. Catch at least one wave in the ocean (a follow-up to this one should be "avoid any and all sharks"... ha!)

Happy New Year from our family!

Answers:
1. Both (we had them twice in 2013)
2. Hers (I recently re-started it a second time)
3. Both (we did not make it to any last year)
4. Hers (one of my favorite things)
5. Both (another favorite)
6. Hers (I have had the pattern and fabric for over a year)
7. Both (we missed out on this in 2013)
8. His (because my husband is wild and crazy like that)
9. His (the jury is still out for me on this one)
10. Both (we only made it to one in 2013; yes, we enjoy that kind of thing)
11-13. Both
14. Hers (hopefully with my almost-three-year-old niece)
15. Both

The Ghost of Christmas Trees Past, Part 3

This is the final post on past holiday topiaries. If I ever finish decorating Christmas tree #5, I will take a picture to show you. I brought home some shells from the beach this summer--tiny, pretty seashells to make into ornaments for our Christmas tree this year. I put the shells in a "safe place," a place I just knew I would remember. And now I don't remember. 

You see, this is a family trait passed down through my great grandmother, O'Dell. She would hide things, important things like candy or Christmas gifts or bills, in secret places in her house so the items would not get lost. Then, when she needed to retrieve these items, she would, in theory, be able to pull them out, unharmed. Most often, however, she could not remember where they had been stashed when she needed to retrieve them. My mom and I both suffer from this condition. I remember getting a few Christmas gifts post-Christmas (usually mid-spring) when my mom came across the gifts while looking for something else. (Who says Christmas comes once a year?) Mom and I affectionately  refer to these memory lapses as "O'Dell moments." Having a nickname for such moments helps me not to get too upset with myself for having had them in the first place (most of the time).

This is a photo of my grandmother and her mother, O'Dell, from several decades ago.
(O'Dell is the one with lighter hair.) I remember the first time I saw this picture: My mom had unearthed it from somewhere, deep within storage, and given a framed copy of it to my grandmother for Christmas. The photo brought a gasp followed by tears. (Granny was a tough, tough cookie, so having tears, for her, was a pretty big deal.) Sharing stories like this reminds me of how much I miss having her here.

Anyway, if you missed the first two parts of this series, here are the links to both of them: Part I and Part II.

Christmases #3 and #4

If I thought that we were broke when we first got married, I learned in years 3 and 4 that I was wrong. For two consecutive years, we were "even more broker" (my grammar students don't need to know about that faux pas). Several weeks in those years, we had around $8 for groceries. We tried switching from shampoo to baking soda and vinegar for a few months in order to help save money (hey, it did work for a while!). I went without toothpaste and make-up for a time (yes, I still brushed, I just used baking soda), and we briefly tried to forego deodorant (baby powder really isn't that good a substitute, in case you wanted to know). We could not afford luxuries like new clothes, TV’s, the Internet, fancy phones, or money to eat out. One time, we even had to borrow money from my parents in order to pay a bill. (If you are as independent as I am, you understand how defeated I felt.) Needless to say, we did not have money for a Christmas tree.

Now, we did not spread the word about our financial difficulties. We didn’t go around sulking or lamenting things we couldn’t buy. (We did not hide it, either. It just was what it was.) No one knew that we didn't have a tree. But on one December morning, a church member approached us in the parking lot, and asked us if we had a tree. When we said that we did not, he placed in our vehicle a brand new, pre-lit Christmas tree. What a surprising moment!

It didn’t matter that we preferred real trees, or that it wasn’t the style we would have chosen for ourselves—neither of those things really entered into our minds at the time. We were just so blessed to have received something that we thought we were going to have to do without. We decorated it with simple ornaments that we made ourselves; the topper itself, a wooden cross, was carved by my husband's loving (and rough) hands. 

Though years 3 and 4 were extremely difficult years, God provided for us time and again. We were where He wanted us, and He made a way for us to stay. That's what our old artificial tree reminded me of: God's provision.

The Ghost of Christmas Trees Past, Part 2

I am continuing my story series about our Christmas trees today. If you missed the story about our first Christmas tree, here is the link to it: The Ghost of Christmas Trees Past, Part I

Christmas #2— 
Almost a year of marriage was under our belts, and we had worked out several kinks in our budget. Oh, yes, by our second Christmas together, we were able to afford the Internet!  And what better instrument is there to find a Christmas tree farm 30 minutes away—one that’s rustic and quaint and in the middle of nowhere and allows a city-dweller the opportunity to cut down his or her own tree? Ahhhhhhh. We could almost smell the fresh country air permeating our apartment living room.

The day of the excursion, we forgot to print the map. Discovering this oversight halfway there, we decided to “wing it,” still fully anticipating a swift arrival.

Several hours later, however, we arrived at the farm in the dark. We had nearly decided to give up altogether. The tree farmer had closed up shop, but felt bad for us; so, he allowed us pick a tree from his pile of pre-cut trees—a pile created for the city-dwellers who did not find cutting down their own trees quite so magical, I imagine. We paid the man too much money, loaded our tree, and headed home. 

Unbeknownst to us at the time, on our roundabout way back to the apartment, we drove past the very church where we would be working in a few months. It wasn’t like a fairy-tale or anything; we didn't stop there and talk to anyone, and there wasn't a giant light shining down onto the church. I didn't even notice the church itself, nestled in front of a wooded area just off the road. But it is interesting that we were driving past dozens of future friends’ and acquaintances’ homes, completely unaware of their existence.

Maps are cool things. So say history teachers. So say I.

The Ghost of Christmas Trees Past, Part 1

My husband and I will be celebrating our 5^th Christmas together this year, which is a little hard to believe. Almost every one of those Christmases together, for some reason or another, we have had a different Christmas tree. Some years we had real trees; some years we had artificial trees. Every Christmas, though, God has provided. This year, since we are once again securing a new tree, I thought it would be fun to share with you the stories of our different holiday saplings.


Christmas #1—

When we were first married, two days before Christmas no less, we were not exactly rolling in cash. Not that we are rolling now, but we had, like most newlywed couples, many extra “set-up” costs that we currently do not have. To be honest, I did not think we were going to have a tree at all because finances were so tight. We could not afford a fancy wedding or a honeymoon, and our weekly grocery bill was somewhere between $15-$20, as I recall.

The tree from the top of our wedding cake
that my older brother brought to town
on Dec. 26th that year.

That year, though, a giant snowstorm hit our area a few days before Christmas. There was a youth group somewhere in town selling Christmas trees as a fundraiser. Rather than stand around in the unforeseen blizzard, they decided to leave the trees at their church for people to take for free. Somehow, my mom caught wind of the situation and sent my dad to their church to pick out a tree for us.

I was overjoyed! My dad, my younger brother, and I went to my future apartment to set up the tree in the living room while my husband (then fiancé) was working. I kept it a secret until he journeyed home that night. (I mean, who wouldn’t want to be surprised with a Christmas tree after work?) He was, of course, pleased when he saw it—as a bachelor, I don’t think he had ever bothered to put up his own tree at Christmastime.

Our free tree was one of the only Christmas decorations we had that year (the other decorations being homemade computer paper snowflake cutouts). We had about 5 ornaments on it altogether; my parents also gave us a string of colored lights. It was not a particularly tall tree or a “designer” tree, but we loved it anyway. We loved it for both the wonderful evergreen aroma and the jolly Christmas cheer it brought into our home. It was so enjoyable to sit next to our tree on that first Christmas morning together, talking to one another and sharing our lives. What a wonderful moment in time.