Christmas Memories

Recently Jared and I were asked to write about our favorite Christmas present, Favorite Christmas memory for an article in a newsletter. Well, little did they know that my long term memory is non existant and Im super cheesy-sappy-deep kind of girl. Jared, who is also a bit cheesy, gets it honestly from his Dad. Here is what we put together.

Rachels Story:

 2007. The year Jared and I were first married and it was our first Christmas together. We were just like how a lot of couples start off life together. Poor. We had a fancy new truck , yes. But that was why we were poor. Our first place together was a grungy old apartment above a pizza shop in Centerburg. Convenient actually, being that was where we both worked. My expectations for our first Christmas together were a lot higher than my husbands. I envisioned us trimming the tree together, sipping hot cocoa by the fire- or in our case…a space heater- watching cheesy Christmas movies, roasting chestnuts on an open fire…or in this case again…the space heater. But my husband had a different vision. His vision was pretty well rooted back to his fathers. Let’s take the cheaper route. (Sorry, John.) We don’t need to spend money on stuff like Christmas tree’s! This may not have been his exact words but it’s how I remember it being portrayed.
 
After much begging and pleading he finally let me buy a Christmas tree….from Big Lots. We drove ourselves up the road to the local Mt. Vernon Big Lots.  We finally found our little tree. And boy I do mean little. The box noted that it was a glorious, full, 5 foot tree. PERFECT, I thought! We bought the $13 tree. Bought a few strands of lights and a couple boxes of bulbs. Checked out to the not-so-jolly clerk and away we went.
 
When we arrived back to the apartment Jared, as I expected, sat himself down on the couch and turned on his favorite video game. Leaving me to trim the tree…while he watched. I opened the box to find the tree came in two parts. Top and bottom. Simple as that. I fluffed out the so called “Full, 5 foot tree” and noticed the top one branch was a foot and a half long! All said and done it was a very scraggly three and a half foot tree. As I was struggling to put the lights on Jared finally came over to help out. As we were stringing them around we noticed we were about half a tree short of lights. Wonderful. We decided it added character to our already looking Charlie Brown tree. We popped open the bulbs and tossed a couple on. Beautiful. I tried convincing myself.
 
Later that night Jared and I snuggled up on our couch, in front of our fire…space heater….and shared a cup of hot tea. All the while watching a not-so-cheesy and not-so-”Christmasy” movie. It was perfect. We didn’t have much. In fact, we had hardly anything at all. But, looking back on that Christmas I remember thinking this is what I love about life. The basics. All I ever want and need. Proverbs 30: 7-9 
 
My gift in this memory didn’t come from worldly possessions. My gift that Christmas was the comfort I experienced from the love of my newlywed husband. He is my normality, my consistency and my partner who grows with me and not from me. I’m forever thankful for the man God brought into my life.

    I know I knnnoooww! Im sappy and CHEESY! But boy, I love my hubby!

Jareds Story:

Many a year ago, when I was a wee lad, I asked for a pair of ice skates for Christmas. Being that I developed a taste for “the finer things in life” at an early age, these skates did not disappoint! They were full fledged ice hockey skates. The blades were tack sharp. The padding was extra thick around the ankles. The laces were wider than normal and had a great contrast against the black plastic of the boot. Last but not least they had cool stickers all over them that let you know they were legit! I didn’t know too much back then and the thought of only being able to use these skates during the freezing of winter never crossed my mind. The fact that my feet were growing faster than my hair never crossed my mind either, thus I really could only get one season of skating out of these skates I so desperately longed for.
 
I, along with my brothers, would normally scout the entire home in search of our stashed presents. We would always know what we were getting before we ever unwrapped anything. In hind sight this took away the thrill of Christmas because it is kind of like having x-ray vision, the surprise of what was under the wrapping paper was already revealed to us.  I however did not discover a shiny new pair of ice skates anywhere. I thought to myself, “Self, they probably just hid them somewhere else so that I could not find them and ruin the surprise.”
 
It was bright and early Christmas day. Bright and early, as in grey and hazy from one large dull cloud at 9:00 am and no snow whatsoever on the ground, just like Ohio never fails to be. I was the last one down the stairs because I have a fondness for sleep that can’t be rivaled. As the presents were being divvied out by the more eager siblings, I never caught a glimpse of a sizeable present able to conceal my ice skates. The day went on with each of us opening one present at a time. I got closer to the bottom of my pile hoping that one would have a note detailing the location of my skates, or at least an I.O.U. telling me they were back ordered. My hopes were vanishing rapidly as I got to my last present. I thought to myself, “This is it, all or nothing.” I opened it slower than normal fearing for the worst. I peered in the box and just as I expected, a new shirt. A lousy, good for nothin’ shirt! What kid wants to get excited about a shirt? Certainly not me, or any other kid I knew. That was the biggest let down of my life… (I wish I could still say that today!)

A few minutes went by and I heard my parents talking back and forth. They said, “Jared, we almost forgot, you have another present upstairs!” My parents truly forgot about my present until all the presents had been unwrapped. I quickly followed them up the stairs and they pulled down a blanket from the top rack of their closet. Inside the blanket was an unwrapped box that had a picture of my ice skates on the front. Inside the box I found my shiny new ice skates.

It was a glorious moment for me. A rollercoaster of emotion. Extreme lows and highs in the blink of an eye. It was that moment that I learned the emotion involved in receiving something totally unearned and unexpected. You may think that my favorite Christmas present was the pair of skates, but in fact it was not. The skates are long gone. I actually don’t ever remember using them. What I do remember is how it felt to receive an authentic gift. It reminds me of the importance of giving. How giving can change lives, and how something so simple and trivial can make an impact in ways we could never imagine.
 
My favorite Christmas present was learning what it means to give.

    But he is just as sappy!)

Take a gander at this picture of Jared and I at my Junior prom! He was already graduated and felt like a dork being there with me. Cuz cool cats dont come back….