Robbie and I absolutely love this time of year, and we are so thankful we get to spend it with each other. This will be our first Christmas as a married couple, and it will be very different from last year's Christmas. We were both kind of on the fence about our relationship last year, and I spent the break thinking about if I should break up with him or not. Boy am I glad those days are over. This year will be much more relaxing and comfortable.
We received a gift card to Lowe's from our wedding, so we decided to put it towards a cute little Christmas tree. We bought pine cones, ribbon, and a few ornaments to decorate our tree. His mom also gave him the ornaments he received every year growing up, which was super cool. My family has a tradition of wassail and donuts while we decorate, so Robbie was kind enough to humor me. He was put in charge of the cider, which was pretty impressive (who knew that apple juice + cinnamon = really good knock off brand cider?). We jammed to some Christmas music and had a lovely night.
I didn't realize how difficult it would be to surprise your spouse with Christmas presents when you both share the same bank account. The fact that Robbie does most of his shopping online (#amazonforlife) makes it even trickier. Well, we came up with a "genius" idea to both purchase gifts from Robbie's Amazon account, and Robbie would just delete any texts or emails he got from Amazon notifying him of purchases. Supposedly he would do it before opening the email/text. Well.......let's just say he already knows what two of his presents are. Our plan failed miserably, haha. We learned our lesson, though, and won't be doing that again next year! Thankfully, I've found some gifts from other sources, so he'll have some surprises :)
My mom had this song growing up she would sing to us during Christmas time that went a little something like this:
Don't ask questions before Christmas, or you will be sorry-o.
I can't even explain the tune, but I've been singing it and teaching it to Robbie. He thinks I'm so weird. I love it.
As I think about past Christmases, my mind goes back to one when I was a teenager. My dad had recently lost his job, so my parents informed us that Christmas would be a bit lighter that year. We were all in good spirits, though, and loved our Christmas stories around the tree, cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, singing around the piano, and other family traditions. It was this year that a family (we still don't know for sure who it was) decided to do the 12 Days of Christmas to our family. For almost two weeks, they doorbell ditched a gift to us every night. It was such an amazing service for our family. We were in need, this family saw that need, and did what they could to help. I remember one of the gifts was a big, hardcover Book of Mormon. We loved that gift and read from it frequently. It seemed that every night we were given something that our family truly needed. It was so meaningful to us, and such a sweet service. I will forever remember that.
This year, Robbie and I have been pondering ways to give more meaningful gifts. President Monson said,
"In our day the spirit of giving gifts plays a large role in commemorating the Christmas season. I wonder if we might profit by asking ourselves, What gifts would the Lord have me give to Him or to others at this precious season of the year? May I suggest that our Heavenly Father would want each of us to render to Him and to His Son the gift of obedience. I also feel that He would ask us to give of ourselves and not be selfish or greedy or quarrelsome."
What can you give the Savior this year?
Check out the newest Mormon Message: What Shall We Give?
Merry Christmas!!!
Check out the newest Mormon Message: What Shall We Give?
Merry Christmas!!!
