Our First Christmas

We were married in Gurnee, IL at a great church called VCG.  So, for Christmas we decided to come to Florida and visit my family.  We were so excited to get into some warmer weather, this Florida boy was freezing his buns off in Illinois.  This was 2005, the year like 42 hurricanes made landfall in Florida.  That put my parents behind on getting into their new house in Fernandina Beach. 

When we arrived, Mom was still unpacking and Carrie and I gladly jumped in and helped.  The next day, while continuing to unpack, my Mom informed me that we'd be moving bedrooms because my sister's family were coming to stay and they needed that bedroom because it had the baby bed for our neice.  That was no problem and we obliged.  One day later, while still helping to unpack, and my Mom informed me that we needed to move again, this time to my Dad's office (the word "clutter" comes to mind) because my brother was arriving with his family, and all of his daughter's toys were in that bedroom.

So, we spent the last couple of nights on air mattress in my Dad's office and worked most of our winter vacation unpacking my parents house.  Of course, we enjoyed Christmas with family and it was really great to spend the time with them.  But, when we got back to Gurnee, we needed another vacation just to recover from this one!  I felt a little used and had a long talk about it with my parents.  We do still feel like the my brother and sister get preferential treatment because they have produced offspring for my parents to spoil and we have not, but it has gotten better.

Life lessons?  I'm not sure.  It was smart to make it known to my parents.  We can even joke about it now, though it wasn't that funny at the time.  And look, its a memory that Carrie and I will have for the rest of our lives.  Shared memories are great for relationships.

Do you have any lasting memories from your early holidays in your relationship?  What are doing to celebrate this year?

My First Blog

OK, so this is my first blog.  In the coming weeks and months I'll be writing a lot about life, and marriage.  Almost everyone I know is married, was married, or wants to be married.  So I guess you could say its an important part of life.  I'm 30 years old and I've been married a little over 4 years.  Its changed me. Its changed Carrie.  I don't know that you would classify this as a "marriage advice" column.  There are plenty of books and experts on that topic aleady.  No, this will be more of an exchange of marriage ideas.  So, keep checking back and add your ideas as well.  Like I said, we all know something of marriage.  The idea is to share knowledge and ideas that will strengthen all of our marriages.