Evolving

It was Christmas 1997.

My husband and I had been dating for just over 6 months, and while our relationship was young and new and only "a baby", per say, we knew that we would get married.

In that short time, we'd spent almost every day together - strolling through our college campus, date nights out for Mexican and to the movies, lunches at the student union, day trips to the beach.

He knew me so well. Looking back, it was as if we were just meant to be and both of us knew it very early on in our relationship.

On Christmas day 1997, our very first Christmas together, he came to my house in the afternoon after spending the morning with his family. He gave me two gifts that year.

1. A gray, Gap t-shirt. I still wear that t-shirt as pajamas every single week. It is starting to fray on the edges and get holey and has completely faded, but I love crawling into bed at night with it on. It's the most comfortable t-shirt I own.

2. A small pearl and diamond pendant - hanging on a simple, gold chain. I was so thankful for his thoughtfulness in choosing something that would truly mean the world to me. And, I felt so loved by him - that afternoon when I opened it and first put it around my neck, and every day after.

I was reminded of that Christmas last week as I contemplated his latest gift to me.

It's been almost 13 years since our first Christmas together. We have now been married 8 years. We've added three, almost four, children to our family and we've matured and grown and fought and made up and lived and loved and stuck with one another through it all. Life looks so much different to us now than it did to those two college students sitting on my Mom's sofa that Christmas afternoon all those years ago.

But, something hasn't changed:

My husband knows me so well. Much deeper and richer, in fact.

And, when he blesses me with a gift, I still feel the same way:

Thankful for his thoughtfulness in choosing what he knows will mean the world to me.

And, truly loved.

Funny how much pearls and diamonds have changed over the years...

Or am I the one who's different?