This year was the first Christmas spent in our first home! We have been in our home for about 4 months now and although it feels like I have a long way to go to make this house feel like our home, I’m pretty proud of how cute our home looked for Christmas time.
I’m learning to get better at taking photographs and documenting to share here on the blog. As I transition off of social media this year, I want to get into the habit of telling a story from start to finish, through words and images. Storytelling is such an art form, one that I am dedicating to practicing this year.
We also spent this Christmas season very sick with a bad head cold/flu. Even as I write this on Jan 4, i’m still not feeling 100% yet. From Christmas eve for the next 5 days, Zinnia had a fever, and Pepper and I had such bad congestion, it was hard to sleep and breathe.
Even though we were all feeling under the weather this year, we had a lot of fun decorating, DIY bows and paper stars, baking treats and thrifting for Christmas (all things I wish I would have documented better lol but i’m learning!). Erik snagged a $500 Christmas tree for $40 at goodwill which was for sure the thrifting win of the season.
christmas eve.
we had a fancy charcuterie lunch and then somehow decided, even with a feverish child, to go to our church’s christmas eve service. it was an absolute trainwreck to be honest, with me chasing the two littlest in the foyer, and Erik trying to remain cool as the two older kids attempted to sit through a very boring service. this is what a friend commented on my facebook as I recounted the story.
i couldn’t agree more.
we hurried home to enjoy a beautiful Christmas eve dinner with my mom and dad and sister. this is where I wish I would have been better at documenting this year. I would have loved to share the food, the drinks, the decorations, but alas. I promise to get better at this!!
it’s easy for me to look at this photo and make a list of all the things i’d like to have done before I share it online. Handmade curtains instead of blinds, new paint colors (the grey on my walls actually makes me physically cringe), ornaments on the bottom half of the tree (lol shoutout to the 18 month old, Pepper). I’d love to share this Christmas feast with you from our beautiful dining room patio, instead of a folding plastic table that we had to rearrange to couches to fit in the living room, but it’s too cold out there this time of year until we get the chance to put in windows and insulation.
Being in the *messy middle* season has kept me from sharing so many things with the world.
I’m beginning to realize that the only way we can see the progress in our lives is if we actually admit that life is about the journey, and if we don’t have a journey, the “arrival” won’t be nearly as meaningful. Documenting the *middle* gives other people so much permission to be a work in progress, too.
christmas day.
we always have breakfast together as a family before we open presents and I think this may be one of my favorite parts of the whole day. Everyone is so excited, they’ve all already seen the presents under the tree, and it is just such a sweet time together before the usual busyness of the day. This year wasn’t busy though because we skipped out of the extended family Christmas to stay home with fevers.
I hope this blog inspires you to start documenting your life and sharing the process. The world needs more stories of the in betweens and the realness of everyday motherhood and life.
From me to you, in the middle of the chaos of sick kiddos and ugly grey living room paint, our very first Christmas in our first home.
besos,
Kaylena
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