Day 9: 16 November 2025

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Journal/Reflection


 Tonight, while I held Little One until he was fast asleep, the hubby put up the Christmas tree; and then once Little One had been held enough (about an hour after he falls to sleep) to be asleep soundly, I set him at the end of couch and the hubby and I decorated the tree together.

Our tree has some of the usually things: a string of lights, a star at the top, baubles that came in a plastic tube together of the gold variety from B&M several years ago. And all of those things are beautiful!

But what I really love about our tree is that it also tells the story of the hubby and me and our life that we’re making together. We buy at least one ornament a year, and have also been gifted a couple, that represent things we’ve done that year. At the Christmas market in Blenheim a few years ago we customized one for our first Christmas together. That year someone also gave us one for our first Christmas engaged. Another friend couple gave us one celebrating when we bought our house. We have ornaments for places we’ve been together around the UK: St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, seeing puffins at the Farne Islands, a highland cow for the years we went up to the Highlands between Christmas and New Years (a tradition that we’re breaking this year, but I hope will continue in the future — I absolutely love the Highlands!). And when we were in Hungary for my friend’s wedding, a friend from when I lived there, we bought a beautifully carved wooden Nativity ornament.

We have plans to go to a Christmas market/see Santa/trail of lights in a few weeks, and I’m hoping we can find an ornament for baby’s first Christmas. That’s this year’s big event — Little One being born — after all!

We don’t usually put up the Christmas decorations until after American Thanksgiving, because that was my family’s tradition, but we’ve got stuff going on the next few weekends, so here we are, putting it up today. And honestly, I love it! I think seeing all the Christmas decorations brings a lot of joy and hope!



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