los angeles, ca family photography: it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

our tree. every ornament is placed with love and a little bit of ocd, to make sure it is perfectly placed. while some families have every member of the family decorating the tree, we have me, while the hubs keeps the kids out of the room, until the big reveal. at that point, we let the boys each put on their special ornament.

every ornament on our tree has a story. our tradition each year is to chose an ornament that best describes the year we had. there is the "out first christmas together" tree, and the "baby's first" ducky. we have an apple ornament from the year i was pregnant with W, not knowing yet if he was a boy or girl, and the weekly updates said he was about the size of an apple at christmas time. there is a vintage barbie that over looks the tree, keeping my grandmother close by during the holidays, and a shell inscribed with "every life leaves something beautiful behind", in honor of my brother in law's legacy he left too soon.

this year, our ornaments are carefree and fun, and i can tell my tree is going to get a lot more colorful and cartoon charactery as the boys get older. (i might need to invest in a tree just for them so i can keep my ocd tree!)

So on the twelfth day of Christmas, I give to you, our ornaments for this year: 

our house is officially on the market now, which means i had to keep it simple for decorating the house this year. just a few touches here and there to bring the holiday spirit throughout the house! 

and a preview of the next blog i'm working on:

just because

when i opened the mail box yesterday, i was greeted with a brown cardboard box. not a big deal, e's birthday was on saturday, and our out of town family had been sending him gifts all week long. but to my surprise, it was for me! i still wasn't sure if it was actually for me though, until i opened it to find a perfectly wrapped little blue box with a white ribbon. No, not THAT blue box with a white ribbon (although that would have been nice!) giddy as a school girl, i open the little note attached to see who it was from, and all the note said is "just because". automatically i assumed it was from my hubs, since i told him i expect a thank you on each of the boy's birthdays, for going through the pains of labor (he laughed at me). as i open the box, i see it is personalized note cards! now, i have a huge smile on my face! if you know me, then you know i am obsessed with hand written notes. i don't know if there is anything i love more than to take a moment and write a little note and pop it in the snail mail to a friend or client. beautiful personalized note cards, just for me! with one of my favorite flowers (ok, so it's a weed, but they are still pretty) dandelions! when the hubs walked into the room, i threw my arms around him to say thank you, and he had no clue what i was talking about. he said it must have been my mom. when i asked my mom today, she said it wasn't her, so i am left with no one to thank! I am putting it out there, whoever they are from THANK YOU! THANK YOU for thinking of me, and knowing me well enough to know how much i would appreciate the beauty of a not card! THANK YOU! and if you'd like to take credit for sending them to me, then i will send a hand written thank you back! So thank you whoever, for making my day!