Our First Christmas

Every year, the growing number of girls in the family makes the Christmas tree turn more and more... pink. I guess I don't mind. I gave up on having a cute, organized decorative Christmas tree the first year we were married when my husband basically wanted big lights (ugly) with these extra ones that make bubbles inside a candle-shaped piece of glass. He also liked the big pine trees more than the fur trees, and... basically everything I don't like about trees.
The first Christmas we had together was different than this one. Much different. Now we get a little bonus from his employer at Christmastime that gives us money to buy gifts, and we have a kind of agreement not to really worry about getting gifts for each other. We've figured out how to include the things I like on our tree and in our home. But, our first Christmas looked like... kind of what you'd expect from a 19 and 20-year-old with no money who were still in college.

[Wayne's World time warp sound effects here]

We had about eight dollars in our bank account, which came from some temporary work we'd both done in our spare time. I'd lost my more permanent temp job around Thanksgiving, and nothing had really come up since then. We were home for the weekend (usually spent about $20 on gas to drive home and back) because one of the cars wasn't working and husband wanted to use his dad's garage because it was really cold.
My mother-in-law was decorating for Christmas and I mentioned I didn't think we'd have a tree this year because of the cash flow. So, she went through her ornament collection and lights, and gave us a little supply to start off with. It was really nice of her. Nothing fancy, just a few things that she knew my husband liked and an extra two strings of lights.
So with that, we went to the nearest place that sold trees and bought an $8 Christmas tree. Seriously, I can't even imagine finding an $8 tree anymore. We set it up and went to Wal-Mart to pick out a couple more decorations. By that point, I had some job that was providing a little bit of cash flow. I think it paid $13 an hour. We picked out stockings because we didn't have our own. We also picked out a tree topper. My family didn't really do that... we just left the tree empty or maybe put a star ornament at the top. Husband always had an angel, so we had to find an angel. He liked these gaudy doll-like ones that lit up... I still can't figure him out. We settled on this crocheted one that probably cost more than the tree. Then, we split up with separate carts and sneaked around each other for an hour, picking out a few little gifts and stocking stuffers.
We had a couple of gifts each, two bags of candy and some beef jerky to share between our stockings. It was, how shall we say, humble? We didn't really know how to merge traditions then. Mostly because my family didn't really have any, and his was all about them. We celebrated our little Christmas at our apartment before we left to go back to the folks' for the real Christmas.
We don't really have any of the gifts we gave each other then, and most of the ornaments we hung that year have fallen apart or mysteriously disappeared (I may or may not have something to do with that). I don't even remember what we gave each other. Really, most of that year is history. But what remains (besides the stockings and the angle tree topper) is the way we love each other.
Some people get a little worked up about the commercialization of Christmas and the way people care more about gifts than God. I know that happens, but for me, giving gifts and celebrating with a little tree is just the way to remember our love for each other. It gives us a place in time to look back on and think about what's changed.
We still like to split up at the store and sneak around to get gifts. And we still argue about what looks pretty at Christmas. But now we get to look back at sixteen other Christmases and enjoy the ways we've changed and the gifts God has given us through the years. Four of those little gifts like to bring us full circle and decorate the tree with their little decorations and argue about what looks best.