Firsts and Seconds
Every year since I was little, my mom has given me an ornament for Christmas. Not all of them are in great shape 30-some years later, but I do still have them all. The last couple of years, my ornaments have all been about “firsts.” The ornament for 2016 was for being engaged. My ornament for 2017 was – you guessed it – our first Christmas as a married couple. This year’s ornament is for our first Christmas in our house. There have been so many firsts in my life these past couple of years, it’s hard to keep track of them all. Sometimes that’s fun. Firsts are exciting, sometimes nerve-racking. Sometimes, firsts hurt. I remember the first Christmas that I spent without my family because I was living in Illinois. I remember the first Christmas without my paternal grandparents. Many of us come to the hurdles of hard “firsts” and sometimes we leap right over them with no problem. Sometimes we fall and scrape our knees with the kinds of scrapes that not even a m