Christmas Tree 1995

This Christmas tree story tells the tale of our first Christmas as a married couple.

The Year of the 'Nexus' Christmas

Not only did December 1995 mark our first year of being a married couple, it also marked our last year living in Washington state.  Mark was finishing his residency at UW and had accepted a Fellowship position at UVA in Charlottesville, VA.  We wanted to make this Christmas extra special as we celebrated as newlyweds and began the hard process of saying goodbye to our treasured friends.  We decided a Christmas party would be a nice way to accomplish both goals.

Our apartment had these wonderful windows on either side of our fireplace, along with a large window over by the dining area.  Our apartment was positioned on the back corner of the complex and our balcony overlooked a grassy area and the tallest fir trees I have ever seen.  It was beautiful. 

Greenery in Seattle was plentiful and cheap.  At Fred Meyer's you could purchase fir garland for something like 10 cents a yard.  We bought enough fresh greenery to drape around our windows, fireplace mantle and the balcony railings, in back and out front by the stairs.  I also lined the stairs (outdoors of course) leading up to our apartment with luminaries.

We hung our two stockings on the mantle along w/ some other Christmas decorations, put a log in the fireplace, lit all the candles and log.  It was beautiful.

For our party, we sent out invitations to our closest friends and prepared a feast for them.  I don't remember everything that we made, but we made a lot of yummy food, and nothing was left.  I also prepared stockings for all of our guests.  I filled them with homemade bread and freezer jam, mittens and other goodies especially picked for each individual.  I laid all the stockings out, with care, awaiting the arrival of our guests.

When everyone came we ate, drank, chatted, laughed and played games.  It was an incredible evening of cozy friendship. 

One of the couples that came, we also would go to the movies with often.  We had recently been to see Star Trek Generations with them, in which "The Nexus" played a huge role in the film.  Our friends told us they felt like they had walked into the Nexus.  If you haven't seen this particular movie, The Nexus is a place where your hearts desires are met and you live your life in this place that doesn't really exist but everything about it feels like it is real.  The pull for the Nexus is strong and once you enter the Nexus, you have no desire to leave.

Our camera's flash was broken so I had asked a couple of my friends to bring their camera's along to take some pictures.  Two of our friends did indeed bring their cameras, but the pictures didn't turn out.  It confirmed our belief that we had entered, if not the Nexus, than some other place that couldn't be captured in film.  It was a place that can only live on in our memories.