Our tree is officially up and our house is decorated.
Thanks to all the 'help' from a certain eager little girl.
We have been enjoying the advent season, lighting candles in our advent wreath, reading our favorite Christmas books and watching our favorite Christmas movies. Keziah is old enough to really get into it this year. She loves our nativity scene and often reminds me "shhhhhh, baby sleeping." But my favorite part so far was her bringing me the baby Jesus yesterday and putting him under my shirt while informing me, "baby need nummies." This is looking to be the best Christmas ever! I can't wait to see her reaction Christmas morning.
Michael Paul and I have jumped the gun a bit and gotten him an early Christmas gift.
Look closely at his hand. That's not an ordinary wedding band. Yep, that's a tattoo.
So there are three tattoos in particular that Michael Paul has always wanted, but for one reason or another has never gotten around to getting. And one of them was to have his wedding band tattooed on his finger. He figured since that one was partially a gift to me, he should have it done first. And so he did. A little early Christmas present for himself!
There's some back story here if you don't know Michael Paul that well. Since he is a nurse, he is constantly washing his hands at work and his sensitive skin and allergy to all types of gloves make the skin under his ring really irritated. So he really can't wear his ring at work. Even at home, most of the things he found himself doing in his spare time, from chopping wood, to working on our cars, to woodworking on his lathe, were things he'd rather not do with his ring on. Even playing guitar sometimes it would get in the way. So basically he was constantly taking it off, setting it somewhere and losing it. Thankfully it has always turned up. But we would go many days sometimes wondering where his ring had disappeared to. Not to mention, now we have a little raccoon -um I mean toddler in the house who likes to take off with shiny objects and hide them places. Suffice it to say, it was annoying always trying to keep up with his ring. So he decided to just make it permanent in the form of a tattoo so he wouldn't have to worry about it as much. He does still plan to wear his wedding band when he can. But it's nice that there is always a 'ring' on his finger when he can't.
It's mostly a gift for himself, but it is partially a gift for me too. Symbols are really important to me. Maybe it is because I am a concrete sequential type personality or maybe it is because I find it difficult to articulate the things that are most important to me. But to me the ring is a beautiful symbol of all the mysteries of marriage I could never describe in words. So it always kinda bugged me that Michael Paul spent so much of his life without wearing his ring. It's not that I felt we were somehow less married. It's just that I really like seeing that ring on his finger every time I glance at his hand. And now I always will.
So that is our fun Christmas gift this year. We have a few small things for each other, but mostly we are excited about Christmas with Keziah this year. Kids really do make Christmas so much more fun!
Happy Advent Everybody!
