Christina & Matthew

Matthew and Christina met at McDonald’s during work orientation. Matthew noticed Christina right away, but it wasn’t till Matthew held open the door for Christina that she took notice of him. It was the day she saw him help his mom put on her coat while leaving McDonalds that he’d be good to her. Christina asked Matthew out (he was to shy to ask her) and they went on their first date.  Shortly after that Matthew gave Christina his class ring and told her he was going to marry her. Christina just smiled at him and laughed it off because they’d only known each about 2 weeks at that time. Well three proms, lots of dates, time with family, and two graduations later Matthew proposed to Christina.  A year later, 2002, they were married at their church.

Matthew’s favorite part is telling others how he knew he was going to marry her and how he’s known his high school sweetheart more than half his life.  Christina’s favorite part is saying how they met and asked him out, since he was to shy to ask her.

While there is so much more to our story from then to now we wanted to share a bit more about who we are as a couple now. We still act like newlyweds according to most anyone we meet. We value time together as a family, whether we are going on walks with our pups, or playing board games or video games together at home. We truly enjoy the little things in life and remembering to cherish those moments and not just the big ones in life.

We love all kinds of movies and TV shows (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, NCIS, Law and Order SVU, Walking Dead, anything Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Comedy, RomComs… you name it we probably watch it. We love all kinds of movies and shows so much so we often have our own “language” as other call it because we often talk in movie quotes, finish each other’s sentences or at times never even speak a word and know what the other is thinking.

We enjoy a variety of foods we love eating at our favorite local ma and pa joints as well as venturing to MN side to eat at our fav restaurants, but also love cooking as a family and sitting around the table to eat, as we talk about life or our day.

We love thrifting and up-cycling items for our house. If something needs fixing around the house you will find us doing it together. We love doing DIYs. We even enjoy local farmers markets, antique shops and craft shows.

We love carrying on traditions from family, but have made our own as well. Some of these include cutting down our own Christmas tree each year, to driving and viewing Christmas Lights, seeing Santa and his reindeer, hiding Easter baskets and eggs, baking Christmas cookies, going to pumpkin patch and picking our own pumpkins to carve, going to movies in our pajamas for Thanksgiving or Christmas to name a few.

While we enjoy time with us as a family, our extended and immediate family is a vital part of our life. Spending time with family and friends is something we do a lot of. Dinners and game nights at each other houses. To holiday and birthday celebrations we are there for each other. Whether we are going to the movies, trying new restaurants, supporting local business, attending community events (parades, festivals, fairs, tree lighting, feasts etc.), outings with family (to the zoo, farm, orchards etc), walks at the various state parks, playing board/card games, going to bingo or something else we spend a lot of time together making memories big and small.

A core value we hold is giving to and helping others, so we do a lot of volunteer events within the community and surrounding communities. Every year we help organize a community Thanksgiving Dinner where we feed well over 300 people who would otherwise not have a meal as well as shop for over 800 children so they will have a Christmas presents, and provide the families with meals too.