Today we will take down all of our Christmas decorations... put away our first tree with the "Our First Christmas"and "New Home" ornaments, take down our outside lights, and pack up our first stockings and hand me down nativity sets. All of these things and more are reminders of our first Christmas together as a married couple. These are the days you hold dear to your heart and share with your kids in a decade or so... you know those stories your parents told you? Something that always starts like "When your dad and I were first married..." Or "The first Christmas breakfast your mom made me..." Have you heard those stories? Well I love the thought that we're living those moments that will become fun stories to tell our kids in the future.

They might go something like this...

"Your dad and I bought each other a puppy for our first Christmas." hopefully Piper will still be with us and we can point to her and rave about what a good dog she is but we'll probably tell them that "...she loved to pull off all the ornaments on our Christmas tree and chew on the fuzz of the tree skirt, but she was the hit of the party when we took her over to your grandparents houses." I'll probably laugh as I remember how rambunctious my parents and my sisters new dogs were when they were together but how sweet they were when they played with the new puppy... and how cute they were in the scarfs that Aunt Erin made for them!

 I might include.."it was hard for me at first when I thought about your aunts and uncles at home, with their matching Christmas PJ's, lining up in the hallway to go see their stockings and knowing I wasn't going to be a part of that any more... but your dad made it easier for me by being excited to wear the Christmas PJ's that I had gotten him to match mine." I'll tell them how traditions got started... "I was a little sad that I couldn't go with Grandma and Grandpa Kessler to the Christmas Eve service since Grandma and Grandpa Poindexter open up presents on Christmas Eve, but thats how we started the Christmas Eve brunch with the Kessler family! So I could still see my mom and dad on Christmas Eve." 




They might be bored and think to themselves that they've heard these same stories a thousand times but you can bet I'll be telling them with a smile and a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart because I couldn't have enjoyed my first Christmas with my husband any more than I did.

Maybe next year we'll have a two legged little one to ooh and ahh over instead of the cute little 4 legged creature in those pictures! Wouldn't that be fun???