Our first Christmas in Norfolk, VA

This year, I wanted to document our first Christmas together in 2020, in a home we share. While this is not my typical blog post, I think it is important for a number of reasons: 1) Details are not just for a wedding day, 2) I want to remember this Christmas, what it looked like, and how it felt, and 3) it has been a TOUGH year this year, and this made me happy. Allow me to share our story with you.

What Christmas looked like last year

I feel like this post would be incomplete without understanding how I spent Christmas last year. Last year I was deployed on the USS Abraham Lincoln on a ten month deployment extended through the holidays. Full transparency: some people are good at this and thrive with full understanding of their purpose and sacrifice during these circumstances. However, I struggled. Christmas away, however, did give me a new appreciation for Christmas with family.

You certainly get to know people a different way you spend Christmas morning with them. I am thankful that onboard the ship we were able to rest. We had spent eight months in the Arabian Gulf by this time. But on Christmas Day we enjoyed each other’s presence, rested, boasted some fresh hot chocolate, and opened the few gifts we had in a White Elephant gift setting. It wasn’t home, but it was special in its own way.

How it looks this year

This year, Thomas and I are enjoying a quiet Christmas at home with my parents. Since we’ve lived apart for the first two years of our marriage, this was our first year celebrating together in OUR home. While we don’t have an extravagant house or a large square footage, we are rich in the things that matter. We made our little house a home.

This Christmas, we decorated our tree together. It’s such a simple thing and I took it for granted growing up. We decorated our tree, made cookies, and are spending the day playing cards, listening to Frank Sinatra, and enjoying family. We are surrounded by blessings, and I am counting every single one of them. I look forward to looking back on these pictures in decades to come and remembering what our first Christmas together looked like. I hope you enjoy them, too. Remember, details aren’t just for wedding days. They are for every day.