Last Christmas, our first Christmas living together, we cobbled together our decorations from our past (those I’d purchased at random when I lived alone, on my little “Charlie Brown”-esque Christmas tree, his from the first Christmas we were together, that I forced him to buy, so he’d have a tree decorated at his apartment) and put up a half-leaning tree (we discovered we lost one of the legs to the stand of his, in the move, so thus it leaned, half-haphazardly against the wall, so klassy) and a random assortment of decorations. Needless to say, it looked okay, but not well-put together and was just enough to get us through the holiday with a little glitter and festivity.

This year, I decided we needed to start anew. Start from scratch. Buy a bigger, better tree (not the lame tree we accidentally purchased…), buy coordinating ornaments, and a few

personal ones. And, almost most importantly, new stockings that we could hang from our mantle (I ALWAYS wanted to have a mantle to do that, it just looks so pretty!). So, last night, on our mid-week date night in, we put together our newer, bigger, and better tree (that M so kindly got exchanged at Target, despite not having a receipt!), placed our new coordinating ornaments up (silver, white and blue), and a few fun ones, including a glittery ’2012′ and a couple of martini glasses (I am still on the hunt for a couple of wine glass ornaments, those are a must!), and – begrudgingly – placed the scary looking Nutcracker M insisted on buying, on our countertop.

After, there we sat…we listened to Christmas music, we drank some wine, watched the fire glow from the fireplace, and everything looked so…perfect. Sparkly, glowing, warm, and festive. We talked about our marriage plans, we talked about BEING married. And just sat there….settled.

Holiday traditions anew…and it feels like the culmination of a magical year for me, for him, and for us together. Feeling incredibly blessed.