Christmas is such a memorable time for me in regards to my husband. I think it’s because it was around this time that we became serious and it was then that I had someone tell me, for the first time, that they were in love with me. It was also my first experience watching someone change aspects of themselves to fit my mold.

My husband has never been one for Christmas. When we started dating was no exception. For him Christmas was always a stressful time because he came from a split family. He watched his mother struggle and work to do Christmas “right.” And his father wasn’t much of one at the time. (He has drastically changed recently.) So this time of year came with more negative baggage than positive gifts.

For me… Christmas was everything. I grew up as an only child from a two parent household. So this holiday was “magical” for me, filled with shiny decorations and tons of gifts. I wanted that to be for my husband, charlie.

During our first Christmas together (and only two months dating), I somehow talked him into buying a tiny spruce tree from the garden center (when they had one) at Target. He also purchased a set of 24 miniature ornaments to dress our living decoration. I still have every single one them and I relish when I get to break them out. The tree, unfortunately, didn’t make it.

Charlie is someone who likes extravagant gifts. Ones that people wouldn’t think to or be able to buy for themselves. The first ever gift he got me for Christmas was a stereo. But when I told him I had accidentally caught a glimpse of the one my mother had gotten me he decided to gift it to his mother and bought me a GameCube instead. This was when they were first released. I felt so weird allowing him to buy these things for me. It felt like I was using him. Which is why I never took the console home. It stayed as a fixture in his apartment. That way if we happened to split, he would still have it.

Much like the ornaments, I still have the console and will probably never get rid of it.

The first gift I ever got him for Christmas was somewhat of a gag gift. It was a matchbox truck and a t-shirt with a truck on it. I was only 18 at the time, with no job and no money, that it was all I could get him. But the reason I purchased these in particular was because whenever he saw a truck he would say “buy me that truck.” I thought it was adorable and still pat myself on the back for it’s cleverness. He was not amused. But that would make sense being the person he is and how he had just bought me something that cost about 50 times as much. But that could just be me projecting because he still has keep the matchbox truck.