Tis the season… to make crazy christmas cards and eat wayyy too much and give wayyy too much (hopefully)… and really take note (and photos) of all the lovely things in my life. This was our family christmas card for this year. The original idea has been done a million times I am sure, but the idea for this card was Jade’s. As a mom, there is no way I would ever tell him that I didn’t want to do it because someone else had done it… so we did it and we love it:)
Christmas has always meant something different from year to year. When I was younger, it was about presents… when I was a teen… still about presents and being able to miss school. Now that I am a mother, it is about teaching Jade and Lulu the meaning of Christmas, reflecting on what’s truly important in my life, and evaluating how my last year has gone.
This was the kid’s first Christmas away from me and I am still not sure how I am going to adjust to having them every other year, but I guess it is what it is.
I have so much to be grateful for this year. I found peace within myself, a wonderful friend to spend my life with and a new appreciation for the time spent with the people I love.
I’ve learned that sometimes I have to let things go and not force things to happen… when I do, things just happen anyway. I have to trust that sometimes what I want is not necessarily the best for me. I have learned the true definition of faith.
Faith in others.
Faith in Heavenly Father.
Faith in myself.
Without it, this year would have gone much differently.
I have made a ton of mistakes, fallen, had to start over and had to move on…
Faith allowed me to keep moving. I always keep moving.
This year, I have been blessed to be surrounded by amazing people.
Jonathan: He makes days amazing and creative and real. He’s gentle and deep. We lead a simple, casual life filled with photoshoots and homework and netflix and the occasional trip to taco bell. He is my best friend in every sense of the word. I have never met a person like Jonathan and I know I never will again. He makes me think.
Jade: He is my baby boy. He is light in darkness. His laugh makes my heart happy. He is so protective of me and respectful of his sister. He looks up to Jonathan and accepts him like he has always been around. He changed my whole perspective of life and all Christmases after he was born meant something new, better, amazing.
Lulu: She is the most precious little child. Her desire to love everyone and everything keeps me going, teaches me the true meaning of acceptance. Her love of music and art makes me proud and her love of her brother runs so deep and loyal. Last week she told Jonathan and I “Jade is my heart, my soul, my sunshine, my happiness.” There is nothing more important in life than that lesson.
Friends: People I see and speak to on a weekly basis. Some I even consider my family. In real life friends who support me in everything I do even if they don’t “get” it, ones who yank me back to reality when my feet start to leave the ground and push me up when I don’t believe as much in myself. Friends who accept that I am an ever-changing Kimberly and don’t judge what they don’t understand. The friends who have been with me for years know who I have been and love me and know who I want to be and love her too. The friends who have recently moved into my life and space, know me now, listen to my past, share theirs and encourage me to follow my dreams and do what makes me happy no matter what others think or say. I know how rare that is.
The voice within: The girl inside who is sometimes scared, sometimes a rebel, sometimes scattered and always determined. My desire to take care of my family has lead to so much growth this year. At the beginning of the year I was blessed with some much needed changes in my life and I haven’t taken for granted that they were life saving. I have learned humility, confidence and self-acceptance. I am learning to listen to my heart, feed my soul and help anyone who asks or seems like they need it.
Today I celebrate everyone who has made this last year the best one yet.
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
~Norman Vincent Peale
I love decorating for Christmas. Now that I own two businesses, I don’t have a ton of time left for making things these days. This year I did though.
Jonathan and I had nothing in the sense of Christmas decorations… we were trying to stick to a budget and still do something we both loved and was special to us. We decided to make our Christmas decorations reflect our wedding and celebrate the start of our lives together. We handmade almost everything we used and bought the rest at the goodwill. We even facebooked what color tree we should get and although most comments said white, we went with purple:)
The photo ornaments, jars, peacocks and branches we all from our wedding.
The garland for the mantle was made up of the gray painted branches we used on our arbor for our wedding. It’s also no secret that I am a HUGE iPhone Hipstamatic fan and I take wayyyy too many photos with my camera. But after looking at all the photos I had taken over the last year, I decided it would be very special to display the photos that meant the most to us taken on my hipstamatic. Each crazy filtered photo marked some amazing event in our lives. I am thinking of keeping it all year because I love it so much.
Jonathan even got in on everything by wrapping my gifts in magazine paper from some of my favorite magazines. The one on the left is from my favorite Guess ad.
Our ornaments were all made from the leftover lids of our wedding jars. We just spray painted them, cut the photos to fit, glued them inside and nailed a hole for the hanger. It was such a lovely experience to have for our first Christmas together.
Today was my first Christmas with Jonathan’s family and I was so happy to have been a part of it. His parents are amazing and welcoming people and his lovely sister had us over for lunch today. What special people. His grandma Rose is one of my favorites and I am so lucky to have them as family.
As much as I would love to end this post on something deep and inspirational, I got nothing left. I will end by sharing my favorite stocking stuffer gifts I received from Jonathan today. This post has been much like our life… a little serious and a little funny.
The “run and tell that” button is from Antoine Dotson and the “Geeks need love too” represents Jonathan’s love for geeky girls.
Tomorrow we get to do it all again with Jade and Lulu and I can’t wait.
I truly hope you all have the best the holidays brings!
-Kimberly
Vera Blue 