rings of Christmas past

Day ten of twelve

I hate to admit that my specific Christmas memories are few and far between.

I remember our specific traditions. I remember how my mom always paid such close attention to us growing up and knew just what we wanted. I remember then and now that she has put her all into making each Christmas special for us.

I remember Sean entering the picture and sharing our Christmases. It's crazy to think this will be our 9th Christmas together! I'm remembering that on more than one Christmas, he put a ring on it! Yep. If memory serves me correctly, a ring has been involved 1/3 of our Christmases!

Here's a recap:

Christmas 2005: The Claddagh

Sean and I had been together about ten months that Christmas and I was thrilled that he paid attention and got me a claddagh ring.

I also remember a friend of mine who got excited, thinking it was an engagement ring...her face fell when she saw it, and she said "oh. it's just a ring." I was so mad! Y'all, the claddagh is not just a ring. If you don't know the story of this lovely piece, read it here.

Anyway, I sent her the story and her tune changed real quick. She even proceeded to realize she wanted one too. Yep, her boyfriend got her one later.

Christmas 2008: The Bling

While this technically wasn't a Christmas present, to me it was. Christmases 2006&7 I wanted nothing more than to be engaged. It just couldn't happen. So when we got engaged December 5, that was gift enough for me right there. A lovely radiant-cut diamond and a fiance. He got me several other gifts that year that he certainly didn't have to, but that one was the best.

Christmas 2011: The Pearl

Confession: the older you get and the longer you're together, the harder it is to come up with gift ideas.

We were in Sam's club when I spotted this ring and mentioned it was pretty (Backstory: I used to hate pearls. It wasn't until Sean introduced me to the pick your pearl at Epcot's Japan that I started to warm up to them). When Sean got a Christmas bonus from work, he snuck back to the store and picked it up for me. Aww.