First Married Christmas

This year was our first married Christmas, and it was one of the most special Christmases we've had (even rivaling our engagement on Christmas morning, 2007). I have a feeling that the Christmas season will always be special to us by default.

Robert and I wanted to establish new traditions with each other--ones that we can continue to enjoy once we start having children. The first tradition that we established on our own was to cut down our Christmas tree. Robert's family had done this before, but mine never had, so it was an interesting and fun new experience for me. We went to a local tree farm and found this "little" beauty:

It's a Carolina Sapphire, 7.5' tall. I love how it looks blue against the green of the other trees. Because I'm the wifey with a camera, I was more designated to take pictures of our pretty tree...while Robert cut it down:
The farm supplied little hacksaws that were fairly well-used and a little worse-for-wear. Robert had to saw with great vigor to get the tree to finally come off its stump. After we cut down our tree, it was loaded for us onto a flatbed trailer, and we took a hay ride back up to the front of the land. We only spent $40 altogether, which was such a thrill--we knew we couldn't really afford a nice Frasier Fir otherwise. And I think I like the Caroline Sapphire better!

Its needles are a little scratchier than the Fir, and its sap can be pretty itchy when it gets into the scratches opened up by the needles, but the aroma is amazing. It's not the typical evergreen scent--it smells more like minty oranges. Delightful!

Next on our task list was to start decorating the house. We dug out my tree-topper, a metallic angel, and discovered that she didn't quite survive the move as well as we would have liked her to:
Even though her arm was off, we still put her on top of the tree. She's a little special, but she's our special angel. We might consider replacing her next year. Maybe not. It's not like our guests complained that our angel was one-armed.

I also put out my Nativity set, which is designed by Willow Tree:
I received the complete Nativity set last year for Christmas, to my utter delight, and the very thought of getting to use it for Christmas in my house this year was so exciting.

I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures of the rest of the Christmas decorations--there's not much out except for our Christmas village houses and a couple of wreaths on the windows.

We hosted a small dinner with our friends who are also married. This was one of the first times we got to bring out our china and set a very pretty table. See our Advent wreath in the center of the table? :)

Faced with feeding guests who do not have dietary restrictions, this host and hostess had to give a lot of consideration to the meal and dessert. We ultimately decided on delicious grilled (and breaded! so decadent) chicken breasts. For the dessert, we splurged on an organic, gluten-free chocolate cake mix and gluten-free dark chocolate icing mix. I handmade both the cake and the icing. I made the icing in my KitchenAid stand-mixer, and it came out ridiculously fluffy and light...it was like whipped cream!

This cake was so delicious!! We were skeptical at first about it being a gluten-free, soy-free chocolate cake, but it turned out so moist and amazing. It tasted like the regular stuff, but cost a lot more. I'm just glad that we found something we like that we can make again (like for Robert's birthday, for instance). Happy me! :)

To top off our Christmas, Robert had surgery on the 15th (tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and turbinectomy). He's recovering very well, but the first few days were uncomfortable for him. Here, our cat is "helping" to watch the humidifier in the living room:

We were concerned at first that the surgery would affect whether or not Robert would be able to enjoy his Christmas. And, this being our first married Christmas, that was a fairly major concern. He was on a strictly liquid/mushy diet for the first few days, but each day it seemed like he was able to eat something a little more solid than liquid. We celebrated Christmas with my family the weekend beforehand, and my mom made Robert a hearty soup while the rest of us ate turkey. To my astonishment and happiness, five days later, he enjoyed ham at his grandmother's house on Christmas Eve, and turkey at his mom's house on Christmas day! I'm so glad he got to have a sort of traditional Christmas, too. The surgeon told us that he would feel pretty cruddy for about a week or so after surgery, and then all of a sudden: bam! he would feel great. I think that's exactly how it's happened. Most importantly, of course, is that he's breathing so much better, and I have a very good feeling about the next cold and flu season. I don't think he'll have as many sinus infections and sore throats from now on, considering his sinuses are much wider than they used to be, and his tonsils are nonexistent.

All-in-all, this was a wonderful Christmas. And we both relished the moment when we got to wish our spouse a very merry Christmas for the first time. :)

I hope that all of you had a great Christmas, too!