Most Wonderful Time Of The Year?

Next week will be our First Christmas as a married couple.   We are still waiting to see whether we actually get to spend it together.   After a very rough start -- her pain pills were not delivered and it took us a whole day to get an emergency script -- my sister is doing better but not ready to be left alone yet.  Our 2 "marital" homes are two hours north of where I am now, and a winter storm is predicted for Christmas weekend.   My poor husband traveled home from D.C. yesterday, using Amtrak as he loves to do, and was delayed for hours in Toledo.  On top of that,  he came down with some kind of travelers' woe, either the flu or food poisoning.   Awful, whichever it was.   I sent him a message that I could try to find a day sitter for my sister and drive down to get him if he needed me, but he didn't respond, and later told me he thought he was going to end up in the ER.    Somehow or other he eventually made it home, and feels quite a bit better today, he says.    But this morning, helping my sister out of bed, I was struck with a wave of terrible nausea, so I am hoping I didn't carry some nasty virus to her.

As first Christmases go, this one will be memorable.  The only tree we have this year is a little artificial one in the front window of my Saginaw house, no decorations at all in  his house, no Christmas baking has been done, no grocery list made or filled, and not a single gift has been purchased.   We look forward to the time when we will look back on this and laugh, and we are really happy to have our rings, pretty much the only evidence right now that we are married.

We also have some photographic evidence now because we received our wedding photos today -- I love the internet! --  from the (expensive) photographer that was recommended by a wedding planner friend.   I am not impressed.  None of his photos are edited, but I am cropping and editing them myself and will make the best of them.   He did not take a photo of the eternity knot that we tire in our hand fasting ceremony, or of our rings, but we can fill those in ourselves.     Here is an edited photo of our "tying the knot" ceremony.   The knot itself, tied with symbolic colors to denote the intent to nurture, health and strength, and longevity, is at one of our houses; the hand fasting ended with the reminder that our bond is not formed by the cords, but by the promises we have made to one another.     

And then there was cake, baked by one of my new step-sons whom we hired rather than have a cake by a stranger, unthinkable.   The bite or two that I had of it was delicious.  Unfortunately, my new step-DIL took off with most of the tartan decorated macarons, filling a box and taking them home for herself . . . I guess I'm on notice of my place in this new family!