This year has been a hard one. A pandemic no one expected changed everyone’s lives in different ways. Our lives are no different. Our lives changed in a huge way this year. We welcomed our beautiful baby girl Kaylee. She has been the biggest blessing. I always had an idea of what I thought having a baby would feel like but it is nothing like I expected. Becoming a mom has changed me in a way I would have never thought. Everything I do, everything I want, I do and want for her. I want her to have everything and anything she could possibly desire. I want to make memories for her, traditions for her. I want to giver her everything.
Christmas is probably the most magical holiday. Having a baby to share it with has brought a new magic to our home. Both David and I have been saying how having children would make Christmas exciting, make it what we remember it being when we were kids. I knew I wanted to start as many traditions as possible. The first one, send out a family Christmas card. I know its not a typical Canadian thing to do. I don’t think I’ve ever received one but I wanted to start this for our family. I want them as a souvenir for us but also for our loved ones. I think it’s a nice surprise to get in the mail. I mean who doesn’t like getting a card in the mail? The first step for was to think of what kind of pictures we wanted to have. I knew it would be in front of our tree and that we would be wearing matching pjs (yep we are THAT family). So once everything was set up, I put the camera on the tripod and self-timer and voila, hope for the best haha, kidding! We must have taken about 10-15 pictures and luckily we had a winner! We then took turns with Kaylee taking some individual shots. Hershey even came in for a shot with me and his little sister! It was really a family affair!
A second tradition we wanted to start was one I think every family starts when they have a baby, the famous picture with Santa. We had even gotten an early start. With Covid, the local mall was going to be doing pictures on appointment. David had already reserved a spot for Kaylee. Unfortunately, we later got an email saying that because of the rise in the Covid cases, the visit with Santa would be virtual. That just didn’t seem good enough. I realize that everyone is in the same situation with Covid and that we just need to try and make the best of everything. I had already decided that I wanted to buy a Santa Clause suit for my dad to wear and be Santa for our kids. I thought it would be a nice idea to have a picture with my dad as Santa with our kids. Well again, with Covid cases rising, a lot of my ideas needed to be put on the back burner. So instead, we did a picture with Santa in our own home with David. I wanted to have a picture with the whole family, so again my trusty tripod and self timer came in handy. We even got Hershey to come in for a few. Kaylee couldn’t take her eyes off of her big brother (she looks for him a lot and love to just stare at him 🙂 who could blame her, he’s a beautiful dog).
Our first Christmas as a family of four (I include Hershey as a family member just FYI) will definitely be a different one. We will most likely be spending a cozy day just our little family as we are not allowed to have any gatherings this year (thanks Covid). Hoping that next year things are back to normal so we can continue our traditions and hopefully add new ones. Once Kaylee is older, we will definitely have a family Christmas movie day, where we will binge watch all the Christmas classics in our matching pjs. Until then, I will keep snapping away so we can capture our first Christmas with our baby girl.
