The first Christmas as a married couple is probably always interesting for newlyweds as they determine what traditions they will take from each family and blend together to make their own (unique or continued) traditions. One Christmas Day tradition that Robbie learned from my family is that Christmas morning, before any presents or even any stockings are opened, everyone puts a card for each member of the family somewhere in the tree. So the tree is full of cards by the time everyone is up and ready to start the festivities. A tradition I learned from Robbie's family is having Christmas poppers. Christmas poppers (or crackers) are a British tradition, and are basically little gifts wrapped such that there are two ends to pull on. One person pulls on each end until the popper breaks, and the "lucky" one gets the gift enclosed on their side of the popper!
This special glass ball comes from our Alma mater, Grove City College, showcasing Harbison Chapel. While this was originally where I wanted to get married in Grove City, we were unable to have our ceremony there because our wedding was the same weekend as Parent's Weekend at the College. Nonetheless, we did manage to get beautiful wedding pictures in front of the chapel and the Quad. We both loved our time there at college, and will always remember that place fondly.
Ok, so enough serious stuff - this is a funny memory! :) In our apartment, we lived on the third (top) floor, right next to the woods. We lived in Murrysville, so there's obviously lots of wildlife out and about in that area already. Well, we hadn't been living in our apartment for too long before we encountered these little critters. Thankfully, not face to face like a few of our neighbors, but we would hear them having a party almost every night, late into the wee hours of the morning! The first time we heard them scamper about, we were in bed with the lights turned out, and we honestly weren't sure if they were in the apartment or not. Both of us (probably myself more so) were quite scared to get out of bed to find out, but thankfully after some sleuthing, determined that they were in the walls.
They continued to remain active throughout the night, scampering about - up one wall, over the ceiling, down another wall - again and again. There were many sleepless nights on account of those squirrels, but thankfully, as I mentioned, no face to face encounters (I may never have been able to sleep again if there were)! Finally, after several months of similar activity, our landlord was able to get rid of them, but their memory lives on each Christmas as they hide somewhere on our tree :) .
This last set of ornaments doesn't have a specific memory of me and Robbie to go along with it, but were made for us by my sister (I'll let you decide who is who!). I think penguins are cute anyway, but these are definitely one of my favorite ornaments on the tree! Perhaps this year we'll be able to add some more ornaments from our adventures in the "Homeland", killing two birds with one stone - world travels AND life with Robbie!
Next time I'm going to ask Robbie to write a few words about his own ornaments, and the story behind them. Don't worry, he doesn't have nearly as many as I do, but there's a story behind that as well! Look for his post sometime this week, and in the meantime Happy Christmas Decorating and Shopping!
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