The story of The Box

Duane & i met in May of 2003. We knew pretty quickly that we fit together well & that probably our relationship was "going somewhere." The fact is that we fit together so well that at times it scared me a little. Relationships aren't "suppose" to be that easy! And because it scared me i asked some advice of someone whom i trusted & she said that it is good to go thru "the cycle of seasons," meaning a year, before "doing something significant." By that i assume she meant even getting engaged, but we chose to take it as getting married.

So, sometime in November we went looking at rings. I told Duane the type i like. He told me what he likes. And, that was all for a while.

My parents came out for Thanksgiving & stayed near my sister in LaVerne. Duane met my parents (& i found out later, asked my dad if he could marry me - NOT something i expected or wanted!). We spent Thanksgiving with my sis & parents & friends. Afterward we went to Big Bear (we were both living in Costa Mesa at the time) for post-Thanksgiving with Duane's family. While in Big Bear we saw a number of "alpine" trees & admired them.

When we got back to Orange County, Michaels was having a sale on their trees & one of them was a 5' Alpine tree. And, because it reminded us of Big Bear, we bought it & put it up together. I had some decorations i'd made the year before & some i made in 2003 (i had a roommate from college abscond with all the Christmas decorations i'd collected thru the years prior to that, & i didn't bother with Christmas for many years thereafter). I don't have a pic of our first tree.

On 10 December Duane & i had a date. By this time he was a frequent visitor at my house, & when he came over he came on in while i was still upstairs. When i came down the stairs i immediately saw that i had a new decoration on my tree.

I asked what it was & tried to tease him by pretending that i'd go to dinner with him without looking at the box. But i didn't get a rise out of him & we started to walk out the door. After a few seconds i said, "I can't believe you would let me walk away without checking this out!" And went back to the beautiful little box.


When we took the tree down i tied a small red ribbon to the branch where Duane had put the box. Do you see the ribbon behind the pinecone? Every year when we put up the tree, we put the box back on the same branch. We add lights & granny's star, but the rest of the tree we leave plain for a week or so until we decorate it later. (In all practicality, this works well, too, because the cats have less time to tear apart all the toys on the tree they think we placed there just for them!)

We met on 17 May, we got engaged on 10 December. Duane wanted a wedding that would be either on the 10th of the month, or the 17th, because that way he'd have less numbers to remember! The way the calendar runs, the 17th of the month is always on the same day of the week as the 10th. (Go on, look it up!) Our church had limited days they allowed weddings, (Fridays & Saturdays) & so we looked at the calendar for 2004, & the only months that allowed us those options were July & September. July all the clergy was away for some conference, so September it was. We chose the 10th. (Duane's cousin married the following Friday on the 17th.) We waited for "all the seasons" before getting married!

Duane has had a very stressful week - i'll write of that later. He felt badly that he forgot the anniversary yesterday. But i don't! Honestly, he usually remembers anniversaries better than do i. This once i got to be the one who remembered!



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