The Ornament

This is our putting-up-the-tree weekend and with it will come a little tradition that fell upon Ed and I rather unexpectedly.

We met in October 1999 and shared our first Christmas that year. We still weren't at the stage where the families got together, and we actually spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our respective families and not together, but we did have a fun evening putting up Ed's tree. My kids and I began a tradition long ago of giving each other ornaments each year and my tree is now filled with these gifts from the past. So, in 1999 I decided to buy Ed an ornament. A nice one from Pier 1 that came in a little velvet box. It even has the year written on it. He liked it and we hung it on his tree.




By the end of 2000 we had moved in together and it was now "our" tree that we put up. We went through all of our combined ornaments and started hanging them up. Suddenly we came to the little blue box from 1999. Unbeknownst to me, and forgotten by Ed, there was a little note under the ornament at the bottom of the box that said, "Sandi xxxxx, Dec 1999, Hope we are still together in 2000 Dec"


When we took the ornament out of the box and found the note, we both started crying. How lucky we were to have found each other and to still be together.

Now, each year it has become somewhat of a tradition to open this little blue box. We have other ornaments in similar boxes that we have collected or given to each other over the years. But this one is special. The note is still there. We usually get all the other ornaments on the tree or in the holders and they take a quiet moment to open this one. And we still cry when we pull out the ornament and read the note.