Our First Christmas

Rick and I were looking forward to celebrating the holidays together this year. For us the celebration began the weekend after Thanksgiving. We woke up that Saturday morning went out for breakfast, turned on Christmas music (I cheated and started listening to them the week before Thanksgiving), and headed to a local tree farm to pick out our first tree. Knowing how much we LOVE celebrating Christmas, we spent some time carefully inspecting the space that we had for a tree in our apartment in hopes that we could find the perfect "little" tree to find a home within the designated space. We walked through the fields of the farm and there it was, our first tree! We checked it out from every angle, and then began checking out some other trees, but we went back to the first one that caught our eye.

Looking at the photos we should have been able to see our "little" tress was not so little, but in the grand scheme of trees it was just right. Rick graciously offered his man muscles to saw our tree down. We loaded it up on his dad's truck, stopped for a coffee holiday treat (aka. peppermint mocha), and took the tree back to introduce it to its new home. The unveiling of the tree proved was a fun one for us as we realized the tree was bursting from the allocated area. It took 3 trips before I got the "right" lights (twinkling whites and led lights are not acceptable for a Wise Family tree). Eventually we had beautiful non-twinkling white lights strung up and it was time to trim the tree. We picked out a few ornaments to create our own style and added some beautiful personalized ornaments from my very creative sister and her family. We continued adding to the tree as we found more things we liked. The tree added such CHEER to our home. It is soft and living and so so lovely. UNTIL.......December 23rd. Rick was on his lunch break and we were busy making plans for the holidays with family and the Christmas Eve Eve service at Providence, where we were to be readers. Rick went to see if our tree was thirsty and saw that some of the branches were moving. :) We stared at it for a while and realized that some eggs had hatched and hundreds of "flying insects" had made a home in our tree. I thought this was great, but Rick disagreed. By the time we came home later that night, the critters were making their way around our living room dining room so it was time to wage war. As Rick began to spray some raid, the bugs dropped to the floor and all over the gifts, wrapped with love. He was frustrated and I said I lost my Christmas cheer. The gifts were moved, the ornaments temporarily taken down, and Rick went to battle. Christmas Eve we woke up to find hundreds of dead bugs on the floor around our tree. So we cleaned up and trimmed the tree all over again.

It remains gleefully in our home where it will remain for quite some time!

It is a fun story to tell BUT.........

We were reminded of the true meaning of the season. Our hearts were FULL of GRATITUDE for the love of a Heavenly Father, time to celebrate the gift of life with our families, and the incredible gift of marriage, creating memories as a young couple. We had so much fun, there was so much JOY. Christmas Eve Eve was spent with our Providence Church family as we celebrated the precious gift of the life of Christ. Christmas Eve was spent with my family at my parents and then dinner with the extended Ecenroad Family. I love traditions and being with all of them each year. Rick and I created a new tradition of heading to a late night candlelit service in Lancaster on our way home. It was so beautiful and a peaceful way to end the evening. Christmas morning we woke up in the same home and had fun offering one another new treasures from under the tree, followed by lots of time with the Wise Family.

We are so THANKFUL for health, for shelter, for God's gracious provision for us, for the gift of friendship we have with one another. I loved the balance of familiar traditions with new ones we made together.

Our hearts are FULL this holiday season!