Our first Minnesota Christmas

This Christmas is going to be a most special one for my family because it's our first Minnesota Christmas in our new home.

My husband was born and raised in the Brainerd lakes area. When he left to join the Coast Guard he didn't truly appreciate Minnesota and all it has to offer. Before we were married I even told him that I would never move here because it was a lot colder than my home state of Maryland and there was no ocean!

After years of my husband going out to sea and being away from his children and me, while living in states that we did not care for, we started thinking about him separating from the service but didn't know where we would raise our family. Then we came to Minnesota for Christmas to visit his family and we all had so much fun ice fishing (which I had never heard of let alone done before), four-wheeling and sledding, that we started to really appreciate the true charm of Minnesota and how it felt more like home than any other state we'd lived in.

My husband is in his last year of service and in March, we purchased a beautiful four bedroom cabin in the woods of Baxter. Our two daughters and I were finally able to move into our new home in July, which was just in time for me to have our third daughter in October in Brainerd at St. Joseph's Medical Center.

Even though we have a lot to celebrate this year, it has been hard these past few months for our girls and me because my husband is currently stationed in New York on Long Island and won't be able to come home permanently until July of next year. We are so very grateful that this Christmas my husband (their daddy) will be able to come home for at least a few days so that we can start a fire Christmas morning in our fireplace and celebrate our first of many Minnesota Christmases as a family together in our new home.