the most wonderful time

.. of the year! First and foremost, did you or did you not sing the blog post title? And second, man, do I love this time of year!

A cozy night with candles, the decorations, the joy in watching someone you love unwrap a gift you spent hours trying to pick! Not to mention the food, gosh Christmas is my favorite meal-holiday, by far. The music, the traditions, the joy! Having a little this Christmas makes it 100x more magical, and given how much I loved the holidays pre-parenthood, I truly did not think it possible.

So despite the pretty lights and posed Christmas cards, I am giving you, yes YOU, permission to take a step back from the joy and stress of creating the "picture perfect" holiday for your loved ones! Primarily because perfection is an absolute myth, an ideal that one can portray but never fulfill. We are inherently all entirely uniquely human, meaning we have good days, bad days, and are really just doing our best all the other days in between. So some burnt cookies and Charlie Brown Christmas trees are more than welcome in my home!

When I think about the holidays, so many Childhood memories rush over me. I could quite literally not pinpoint or describe to you a single Christmas present I received, not because there wasn't any (there certainly was, firstborn child, granddaughter, and neice meant I was well-showered with books and toys and love!) nor because I was ungrateful, but because to me, they were not what made Christmas significant. Preparing the traditional Christmas Eve meal my mom and aunts had been eating since they were young girls, attending Church where we would sing the same songs every single year, waking up on Christmas morning in our new pajamas we had gotten the night before. It was all so entirely fulfilling to me, a moment that even now, I can say I was so presently in the moment for that it made that feeling unforgettable.

The magic of Christmas just isn't in a store ya'll. I promise you, it's in the four walls of your home, surrounded by those you love, and in spreading joy wherever and however you can. For as long as I can remember my family always "adopted" another family for Christmas through our church, and in the weeks leading up to Christmas, prepared a box for a Christmas meal, some small toys if the family had children. My husband and I have continued that tradition and now donate to several meal organizations over the holidays, have "adopted" local children to shop for in the past, and always donate some new toys to one of the charities very dear to us, St. Jude's, for the children undergoing treatment and in remission to play with, hopefully bringing them just a small amount of joy during such a difficult time.

I don't say this for the pat on the back, it's not something I even typically talk about with family or friends for that very reason. We do these things because it brings us joy to ease stress and bring joy to others. Full stop. This holiday season, I challenge you to do a little more of the same -- give what you can to those who need some joy in their life, and whether you know them or not, whether you get to see their reaction or not, I promise it will bring you peace and joy just as it will them.

What else can I say about the holidays? Well, I fully prepare to make all the crafts and ornaments and you better believe that baby has a wardrobe for the season! While I don't strive for a cookie-cutter perfect holiday season, I literally am addicted to capturing memories. Ahem, i.e. this blog. I'm addicted to capturing my thoughts, capturing photos, doing whatever I can to both be present and find a way to hold on to every time period forever. It's why I hold on to so many silly things as near and dear to me, why I have kept every love note, why I relentlessly capture those monthly photos and try to curate experiences as a family that hopefully, she will cherish as much as I do. Do I go overboard? It's likely at times. I mean, the man at the photo center at Walmart doesn't even ask my name anymore and just starts flipping through the picture envelopes when I walk up. But I do believe I am as present as I can be, so wanting to capture the moments I am so fulfilled by? Guilty as charged. Also my Instagram will be absolutely littered with photos so I repeat, unfollow if you can't handle the Ellie spam (@ my cousin Jake who roasts me for the overload LOL).

Gosh, that's really just a drop in the bucket about my thoughts on the holidays, but I'm trying to do better about posting regularly and was really just in my feels today thinking about the upcoming season and feeling the call to share.

Are you excited about the upcoming season? Does it make you feel stressed, or panicked to know what to gift others? Maybe you also feel overwhelmed with curating holiday memories, too? What holiday traditions do you love, or silly memories of yuletide yesteryear do you want to share? HMU with tinsel tales. Ok, that's enough with the puns. I candy-cane't get enough of them, though.

Happy Holiday season, ya'll!