Holiday

I am not a child of divorce, but my son is. This is a lifestyle that has become new and unfamiliar to me. Heartbreaking at times. It has its moments. I am learning as the years go by. It’s not the life I would have wished for my child to experience, but it is the life I chose for him, for us. We persevere. We share the holidays. For my son, this is all he knows. His parents were divorced when he was an infant. So he has always had two families; it’s what he knows and it’s all he remembers. So as the temperature drops and I begin hear the jingle of the music, I anticipate the reminder of what his...

I have been eyeing the beautiful red wreaths at Target for the past several years. Don't ask me why I never bought one. I guess partly because I didn't want to spend $30 on something that I would only get to enjoy one month out of the year, partly because I'm usually grocery shopping and I see it as I pass by in a hurry to get to the baby aisles. Regardless, I never did bite the bullet but the other day I was in Hobby Lobby and an idea hit me. I would make my own DIY wreath. I love crafting so this would be fun! It's super simple. You need only 4 items. A 12" floral foam circle -...

Growing up, I always anticipated our yearly trip to Christmas Forest, just north of Zachary, to choose and cut our Christmas tree. It was my family's tradition, and I couldn't wait to begin the yearly trip with my own children. For a few years, my own little family continued on with the tradition, then Christmas Forest closed shop. We tried a few other choose and cut places, but none with the same ambiance. Choosing a pre-cut tree in front of a hardware store wasn't quite as festive, and while I know some people prefer it, using an artificial tree seemed cold. We decided to think outside the box and start our own Christmas tree tradition. Two years ago, we bought...

We never made an "official" decision that we would keep the holidays simple, it just sort of happened. Like most couples, early in our marriage our income and our time were both very limited. Even a few years later when we became parents, I was in graduate school, scraping together enough money to pay the bills and spending most of my "extra" time with my nose buried in books or running statistics. Going all out for holidays just wasn't financially an option and we didn't have a lot of time or energy to build complex traditions. Perhaps a lot of the reason we have a simple holiday season is just a reflection of our own experiences growing up. When I think back over the many...

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! The holiday hustle and bustle, the general good will of people everywhere, and the twinkle of holiday lights gets me giddy from about Halloween on. I (being an overly organized planner) begin thinking about holiday plans around Labor Day and love to make the holiday season last as long as possible! I was raised to fully believe in the "magic" of Christmas. Even before my children were born, my husband and I fully celebrated the holiday season. Now that I'm a mother, I want my children to know the magic of the holiday season just as I did when I was younger. My mother loves Christmas, my grandmother loved Christmas, and now I hope to raise...