Orthodox christian home altar

When we got married, one of the first things Tom insisted on was that we create a home altar. I had seen such things at the homes of a few Catholic families we knew, but never really understood how they were "used," or why they had decided to dedicate a specific area of their house for one. I resisted for a while, not wanting to sacrifice any space in our tiny little duplex towards something that I felt we would never actually use. Tom won out in the end, though, and we set up a little…