Our First Christmas
After having debated whether or not to get a Christmas tree this year, we ended up walking through the aisles at Wal-Mart and stumbling across a beauty. The tree was standing there six and a half feet tall, already garnished with lights. We looked at each other and decided that this tree in a brown box needed a place to spread its branches this Christmas season.
Arriving home at our little duplex on Havana Road around 11:00pm we excitedly carried our new Christmas decorations into the house. At this point most normal people would have said we will set the tree up and decorate tomorrow. However our little tree was scratching at the inside of the box anxiously awaiting its freedom. We had compassion on the little guy and pulled him out of the box sprucing up all of his braches. After just a few minutes and a bit of electricity the little green guy was glowing, in way that made us almost forget that he was made of plastic and metal. 
Once the little green guy was lit up Alicia pulled out her box of Christmas ornaments which represented one for each year of her childhood and began to share the stories associated with each year. Meanwhile Jason pulled out two boxes of 12 pretty glass bulbs that he had purchased at Wal-Mart earlier that night. Jason carefully took each 12 cent bulb made in China out of the box and contemplated whether to mark each bulb with the years from ‘83’ to ‘07’.
The sounds of Celtic Christmas echoed through our living room as we finished placing the pieces of the nativity set Aunt Rachel gave us as a gift last Christmas. After hanging several strands of lights in our living room and on our porch railing our house was now fully winterized. Upon the completion of decorating, we excitedly walked out to the road in slippers and sweat pants to see how the little green guy looked from the road. Noticing all of the neighbors lights were off except for ours we realized it must have been late. Sure enough it was 2:00am!
With the Celtic music turned off and the living room no longer glowing, we said goodnight to the little green guy and crawled into bed.
2007 A Year Of Transitions
Over the course of the last 15 months we have gotten engaged, planned a wedding, graduated college, job hunted, moved, got married, started new jobs and settled in a city where we didn't know anyone. Through out this whole process God has blessed us immensely by giving us the strength and energy to trust Him more during these changes. We both feel like God has us in Owatonna for a reason and its becoming more evident as we get involved in relationships with coworkers, the community and our church.
One of the largest transitions came after the “I do’s”. Before getting married our relationship was completely long distance. Making the transition from long distance courtship to marriage has been an enjoyable one. During the first few months of our marriage we were constantly living like the other person was going to have to leave at the end of the visit. We have also found ourselves learning how to communicate effectively, give grace, and work as a team. It has only been 6 months and we have much to learn yet, but we are both truly enjoying the journey that God has for us now as a married couple.
The main reason that we came to Owatonna was that God opened a door for Jason to work for Federated Insurance. He started work the beginning of June and has been in full time training since the day he arrived. He is anxiously awaiting the middle of January when he will be able to apply everything that he has learned over the course of the last six months. Overall Jason truly enjoys his job and he is challenged daily to trust God for strength and the ability to learn the material assigned.
Alicia took the first two months to merge all of our belongings, work on thank you cards, and start transforming the house into a home. She was also nervous about cooking meals at first, and decided that for the first month she was going to ban Jason from the kitchen, allowing her to become a master chef. After two months, Alicia started to go a little crazy and needed to find a job so that she could get out of the house and meet people.
One of the bible study leaders suggested that she apply at Custom Coffee in downtown Owatonna. Alicia picked up an application on Friday and was hired on Tuesday. The job has been such a blessing as the hours are in sync with Jason’s. She’s been enjoying meeting people and keeping up with the fast pace of the coffee shop. Her barista job is part time so that she is able to work on her art two days a week. She is exploring which direction she wants to take her art in the future.
With Love, Jason and Alicia
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