a glimpse into our christmas eve

{just a few photos from our christmas eve morning}

{every year for christmas eve breakfast, chris' mama would make the same breakfast casserole, and since i knew we wouldn't be traveling home for christmas, i lovingly obliged to try my hand at it - albeit a bit healthier of a version. have to admit, it was pretty tasty, and just might be sticking around}

{homemade granola gifted from my sweet friend brittany, plain yogurt, and pears drizzled with raw honey}

{my tiny little foodie, she is the happiest when food is involved}

{i just couldn't resist these matching dresses. this was right before we headed to a beautiful christmas eve service, three local churches congregated together in worship. and although, i love, love my small intimate house church - these are the moments when i crave a little tradition. so we just kinda hopped on in. hoped no one cared too much. the music and the message were both so genuine, powerful yet simple, just lifted the veil a bit, to let me see the truth and beauty of Christ's  birth.} 

{carrying on a little tradition i grew up with, opening a gift on christmas eve. matching pajamas of course! we added a little touch - the girls also received, a charlie brown christmas, and we all enjoyed hot cocoa and one of those giant bins of popcorn while we settled in for the night, anticipating christmas morning}

christmas and little traditions

I have always loved the smell and feeling of a real christmas tree. growing up we never had one, supposedly my mama was allergic. but, i am still not truly convinced of that. so in our first year of marriage - our first christmas together - mind you before there were any littles running around, I convinced chris to get a real christmas tree with me. to my surprise, he never got a real one growing up either. so we got a little charlie brown tree.{our first christmas here}

and so our tradition began. if it was up to me, I would have the tree up by thanksgiving, but my husband is bit of a separatist when it comes to holidays. and honestly, i am starting to love it too. to fully celebrate thanksgiving and gratitude all month, and allow the waiting and tension of christmas to build. so on the first sunday of advent, we get our real christmas tree, I make homemade hot cocoa and cookies, and we all decorate the tree together. for as long as their attention span will allow. I just love it - and having our littles celebrate with us, makes it so much better.

so keeping with tradition, on the first sunday of advent, we got our real christmas tree. and it's something we look forward to every year, I just love this time of year. I made homemade hot cocoa and cookies, and pull out all of our christamas decorations, and we go to town. and i just can't stop listening to the she + him christmas album. this year juniper was old enough to participate, and oh my goodness it was darling to see her face light up with excitement over the tree. she kept giving it kisses and of course had more fun putting up and taking down the same ornament over and over. so precious. we basically just have lots of lights, homemade ornaments that sparrow has made or some from my childhood, and we've started getting one new ornament a year - usually from anthropologie because they always come out with the most darling ones. so our collection is slowly building, but I just love it.

the girls also get their own little tree to decorate in their room, we started this a couple of years ago with sparrow, and now juniper gets to join in! sparrow is so proud that she gets to pick her own tree out and can choose which ornaments to decorate with. she usually picks lots of candy canes and yarn.

i didn't grow up in a super traditional home filled with lots of specific traditions - we did have some, like wearing matching pajamas on christmas eve, and also getting to open one gift. but, it's something over the years me and chris have had lots of conversations about. what traditions do we want to keep that come from our childhoods and which ones would we like to cultivate in our own family. we don't have them all totally figured out, and most have just kind of happened organically. but, my favorite is doing advent as a family. neither one of us grew up doing advent, and so this is something we have been intentional about doing together every year. right now in this season of little ones, we keep it simple, it usually involves a little craft and scripture. we also have a nativity that sparrow helps set up and we use it as a visual story guide. but, i love being intentional and carving out time each evening to let go of empty busyness, choose joy and contentment, and receive the true gift of christmas. and to help give eyes to my children to see the truth and depth of why we celebrate. we give gifts because he first loved us and gave himself as a gift to us.

 

MOZARTS!



while we were in Austin for thanksgiving, we took the littles to one of my favorite coffee shops-Mozart's! it over looks lake Austin and has the most breathtaking view, I love to sit on the outside deck, sip coffee and read a good book. 

during the holiday season, they have a light show synchronized to music, and it is just magical. sparrow + juniper were both a bit mesmerized by it. this year they did the infamous 'fox' song, and it was so funny to hear the crowd humming along.

sometimes when you ask a stranger to take a picture of you - you never really know how it's going to turn out, but surprisingly I love this one.