I married Ryan Reynolds, and I’m not telling you about a secret fantasy.
It’s mid-November, and we are hunkered down at home while a late season tropical storm is pummeling us. Mid-November is two weeks before my start date to begin planning for Christmas. My rule is no Christmas planning, no Christmas music, no Hallmark Channel Christmas movies until after Thanksgiving. But the power is out, so I’m reading the magazine insert that comes with the Sunday newspaper and making notes for Christmas gifts and new recipes.
So, here’s why I say I married Ryan Reynolds. While reading an interview with the actor about the new Christmas movie he is starring in, it occurs to me that the article could have been written about my husband.
The movie is a musical. Reynolds tells the interviewer that he’s not a very good singer or dancer. Ditto for my husband! We’ve tried to dance together lots of times. When he goes left, I go right . . . when he goes up, I go down. It’s a funny thing to watch, I’m sure. Then there’s his singing. Every Christmas Eve, our church celebrates with a candlelight service, and toward the end of the service, the entire congregation stands and sings “Silent Night.” My husband’s monotone baritone has me laughing so hard that I have to remember not to drink any punch before the service.
Then, Ryan Reynolds tells the interviewer about the time his dad canceled Christmas. When the kids were little, my husband canceled Christmas almost every year. I think the stress of the high cost and commercialism of the holiday pushed him right to the edge. I’m sure those things influenced my self-imposed “after Thanksgiving” rule. And just like Ryan Reynolds, he hates Christmas shopping! My husband will tell you he would rather hit himself on the head with a ball peen hammer than go Christmas shopping. A little dramatic? For sure. I’ve always said he’s the most dramatic person in the house, even though I’m the actor!
The similarity I love the most about Ryan Reynolds and my husband is that they are both very sentimental. In the article, Reynolds said he and his wife decorate a real Christmas tree with ornaments they have saved from their childhoods. When my husband and I were first married and moved into our new house, it wasn’t his favorite recliner or his sports hero poster that garnered his special attention. It was his box of Christmas ornaments and keepsakes that he carried into our home with pride.
Every year, we take out the box and carefully remove the puffy dinosaur ornament he made in the third grade and the red ball with his name written on one side. My favorite ornament is adorned with a picture of him as a teenager with long, feathered hair and a big, toothy grin.
We’ve added to the box over the years. I’ve collected many ornaments, and our children have added their favorites. Our tree ornaments don’t match . . . the tree doesn’t have a theme or fancy lights or bows. Our family Christmas tree, just like the Reynolds family tree, reflects our family and our traditions.
So, I think you’ll agree.
If only by another name, I did marry Ryan Reynolds.