Tradition. Never had any strong feeling towards them until now...now that it's my turn to continue them. At this point they become exciting and explain in a way why you are the way you are. St. Nicholas Eve is a tradition filled with traditions that begin with my dutch heritage and have now continued with Shawn and I.
The eve began with a trip to the Christmas tree lot. We had hoped to go up in the mountains and cut one down for our first Christmas together, however, due to the fact that I recently had the infamous swine flu and now laryngitis, the idea of making our way like lumberjacks in the freezing cold, through the woods to hack away at a tree with our little hatchet (Shawn's favorite wedding gift :) wasn't going to win a healthy Mary back. So the nursery it was!
The nursery down the street was our winning ticket. It was an easy pick for us...past all the beautiful trees we made our to the very back and saw there, lying on its side, our little Charlie Brown tree and knew it was for us. We threw it in the back of our borrowed truck, stopped by Wal-mart (
Before we began our decorating festivities we energized up with pizza and a little bit of Santa Clause 2. Yes, the movie was a little cheesey but sure did get us in the Christmas spirit:) We began putting up the lights and decorations around the house and then left the tree for last.
Our little home felt warm and cozy, with homemade hot chocolate on the stove. After a little visit from Shawn's old mission friend, Larry and his wife, we ended the night singing Christmas songs and admiring the beautiful lit up Christmas tree.
