Our very first Christmas

One of my most memorable Christmas season, was the first Christmas I spent with RM. I was several months pregnant with Moe, and like many newly young married couples, we did not have a lot of money.

Since we were going to spend Christmas at my mother's, we decided not to get a Christmas tree. We lived on a strict budget and there was not enough money in our budget to buy a tree.

It wasn't an easy decision to make, but we knew it was better to have food in the kitchen cupboards, than a Christmas tree in our living room.


When we would arrive home from work, there was always a trail of pine needles along the floor of the hallway in our apartment building.

Each day I would comment to RM, "I bet if we follow the trail of pine needles, we can find out which apartment just got a Christmas tree."

It became a game for us.

We would follow the trail of pine needles and when the pine needles disappeared under an apartment door, we would end the game by saying, "Lucky Apartment 16 has a Christmas tree today!"

It was a very sad and pathetic game.


Then one day while I was at work, RM called to tell me that he wouldn't be able to pick me up, since he would be working late.

I took the bus home and when I arrived at our apartment, I noticed a long trail of pine needles in the hallway that led to our apartment. .

I thought to myself, 'Another lucky person has a Christmas tree today.'

It was disheartening to see someone else receive a tee and not us. But I continued to follow the trail of pine needles and was curious to see who in our hallway received a tree.

We lived at the end of a very long hallway and I noticed that the trail of pine needles continued near our door.

For a moment, I thought that maybe it was us who has a tree. It was wishful thinking on my part, and I couldn't possibly see how we could get a tree, especially since I knew how much Christmas trees would cost.

And yet the closer I walked to our apartment, the trail of pine needles continued.

My heart started to beat really fast, "Could this trail possibly lead to our apartment?" I asked myself as I walked faster.


Then trail ended...right under our apartment door! I quickly unlocked our door and right there in the middle of our living room, was a gorgeous Christmas tree, and right behind the Christmas tree was RM.

He jumped from behind the tree and yelled out, "Surprise!"

I was so shocked- I felt like I was going to give birth right there.

RM was laughing when he saw my reaction, and after I recovered from my shock, I went up to him, gave him a hug, and started crying. (I blame it on the pregnancy hormones)

When I asked RM how he was able to get the tree, he said that he was friends with the guy that was selling trees, and he gave RM a 50% discount. It was a 7ft tree that cost us only $13!

We decided to forget about our food budget and use the money to buy decorations. We went to a drug store and spent exactly seventy three dollars on Christmas decorations.

We even splurged for take out dinner at Mcdonald's!

We had so much fun trimming the tree and decorating our Christmas stockings with glitter and glue. And when we were finished, we stood back admiring our very first Christmas tree.


There was always a new trail of pine needles in our hallway every day, but we hardly noticed them, and didn't care which apartment had a Christmas tree.

We lived on peanut butter jelly sandwiches for over a week and surprisingly never tired eating it.

We've had many Christmas trees since then, but we'll always remember our first Christmas tree.




(Unfortunately we never took pictures of our first tree, so the pictures above is of our Christmas tree this year)