Tag Archives: Christmas

38/40 – on Christmas moments

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This Christmas season feels different and a little melancholy for me….this year has certainly had it’s ups and downs and at one point, we were preparing for a big transition as a family. Not good or bad, just a transition that now isn’t happening. With one adult child out of the home and a teenager that has his own feelings about Christmas (mostly around going to event after event which is historically hard for him and both our kiddos with trauma – read more about Christmas as a foster family here).

Our 2022 Christmas card filled with highlights (and WonderBOY not smiling).

So I thought I would take a moment and reflect on some of my favorite Christmas moments throughout my 40 years of life that still hold a special place in my memories.

Childhood moments –

  • Special presents I remember opening: our family trip to Disneyland (mickey ear hats), my first cell phone at age 20, accessories for my American Girl doll Samantha, small creepy porcelain clowns (my mom wanted me to collect them?)
  • Walking out to the tree Christmas morning always stands out to me as my Mom did a wonderful job displaying all of the presents that magically appeared seem so magical – I still love looking at presents under the tree and try to wrap them early so I can gaze at them from my morning coffee chair
  • My older brother and I knowing where my Mom hid our presents and sneakily opening the carefully taped ends to get a peek before Christmas morning (sorry Mom)
Presents wrapped ready to be gifted to our loved ones.

Adult moments

  • Our first Christmas with the Wonders – all of the magical traditions like cutting and decorating the tree, Christmas morning, reading stories by the tree each night, acts of kindness countdown….I loved seeing the joy and magic in their eyes
  • Our second Christmas with the Wonders where we tried to fix all the errors we made in Year 1 with them (see post I linked above)
  • Christmas cruise celebrating our adoption
  • Seeing our extended families grow through marriage, new babies, adoption, etc.
  • Receiving and compiling holiday cards that I look through every single year after creating mini books out of them (read more here)
  • The joy of kittens and cats at Christmastime

Favorite gifts I have gifted over the years:

  • Disney cruise
  • Letters to Scott (and eventually the kiddos) to open and read on Christmas morning
  • My Gramma’s Storyworth book to my Mom and her siblings (read more on this here)
  • Special bracelets in honor of the Wonders’ birth mom
  • BraveGIRL’s cell phone she desperately wanted
  • Permission for WonderGIRL to date
  • Two experience gifts I am VERY excited to gift to WonderBOY in a few days after posting this
  • Small ornaments with photos of our family to grandparents
  • Tickets to see Sound of Music in Seattle with my Mom and Gramma

I am hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas with your chosen or given families….I also hope if you’re not in the Christmas spirit for whatever reason, to release the “shoulds” and the expectations and lean into the care and keeping of you and your heart, whatever that may mean for you.

On my favorite “gives”

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I love giving gifts that mean something to the receiver and honoring something from that particular point in time. I don’t always knock it out of the park and sometimes I just run out of time, but I was excited about a few things this particular Christmas.

Honoring a lost loved one:
The Wonders’ biological mother passed away a few years ago which resulted in some complicated grief for both of them in their own ways. I wanted to honor her memory in a way that both of them could access when desired and for years to come. We had saved letters that she had written to the kiddos when they were in foster care and she was working on getting them back. Although the entirety of the letter is not her handwriting, I knew the signature was and had that made into special bracelets for them.

The box included the bracelet, the original letter, and a laminated picture of her signature to keep all in one special spot.

Honoring a hard year(s):
Each year, our family members write letters to each other and those are the first things we open Christmas morning. I combined my love of photos with my new favorite song/anthem of the year (from my favorite new podcast of the year). Each time I heard this song, I would imagine what it would be like for each of my family members to TRULY believe the words and live their truth and best, healed lives moving forward and it got me each time. If you ever saw me singing in my car, it was most likely to this song at a high volume (or a 90’s hip hop playlist). Their “letters” included a special picture from this year, a card explaining the lyrics and a special laminated (can you tell I got a laminator for Christmas?) picture with the lyrics overplayed for them to display somewhere they might need it.

Stay tuned for another blog post with one more special present I gifted this year. What was your favorite that you watched someone unwrap with love this year?

Unexpected joys of 2021

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I’ve gotten a few messages from folks receiving our Christmas card checking in on us (thank you btw), where I expressed how hard it was for me to send the card knowing our family was in a state of crisis healing. But what I loved about the creation of the card was going through an entire year of photos and remembering some bright moments that occurred (darn it anxious feelings for taking those away from my frontal lobe).


A few other unexpected JOYS from this year:

  • The silliness of this crew (oh ya and our 3rd place finish – the best JOY yet)!
  • Throwbacks of me and Beej.
  • Decorating my hallway/door at school.
  • Capturing my SC fits on tik Tok (tik Tok in general brings me joy).
  • Holiday decor at Gramma’s.
  • Chats (and silly photos to past players) with T!
  • My friendship with these ladies (and the Nelly concert that was 100/100)!
  • How loving and considerate this boy is.
  • When WG shows up!
  • My monthly calls with my school counseling soulmate!
  • This podcast – life giving every time.

On our cozy Covid Christmas

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To be honest, this year didn’t look a whole lot different for us….we learned early with the kiddos (this is our 6th Christmas with our Wonders!) that a ton of events around this holiday is NOT healthy for any of us. So just like in years past, we spread out family gatherings (and used masks when appropriate), we had a slow Christmas morning with minimal presents and stimuli, and increased the answer “yes” to many of their requests.

Here are a few happy pictures I want to remember from this year:

New happy jams – and the perfect Christmas card picture we took the day after I ordered our Christmas cards. Just the way 2020 worked for all of us…..bad timing!
  • Waiting for Daddy to get off work was hard!
  • New DJ set….
  • Vampire diaries swag.
  • All the cat toys!
  • Watching WW1984 as a family!
And because it’s funny – I went crazy with the Snapchat filters on Savannah and he hated every moment of it. Scott at work thoroughly enjoyed however.

Holiday highlights 2016

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Holidays are pretty magical with kiddos – our favorite parts often are smaller moments that come from seeing old friends, completing our Christmas countdown activities, and celebrating the birth of Jesus. Although presents are fun and exciting, I feel like our little fam does a good job balancing the small joy of those with the BIGGER joy of being together and showing acts of compassion towards others.

I am lucky in that some of my bests come home each year to see THEIR family which gives me some small moments to sneak in visits and dates out of the house. Matching sweaters for the festive win!My littlest niece is the cutest right??? So smiley…..And my oldest niece from my side is pretty darn cute herself…..same size as WonderBOY and just as tough. Love her to pieces!This year, my family served at a Cornwall church service and we got to hand out links as families walked in. What a great practice of social cues for WG (eye contact and facial expressions) and a fun privilege for WB who loves sneaking into “big human” church when he can! Favorite song from our service this year from him included a peppy version of “Go Tell It On the Mountain” in which he sung “go tell it! go go tell it!” all night long.WonderGIRL’s gift from Santa – a new instax camera. Super cute, actually good quality photos and some fun accessories to go with it. Also, check her new Christmas eve HAPPY JAMS – so many emojies, so many selfies, so little time…..WonderBOY’s “something you want” gift from us was this starter BB gun. Scott is big on teaching him appropriate gun safety so safety glasses are a must. I think this pic of him in his new robe and snowboots (a white Christmas for once!) with Scott in shorts and romeo’s behind him are pretty darn cute so I had to include it here!
Our favorite gift this year was surprising the kiddos with a Disney Cruise for NEXT Christmas. Scott and I have been saving all of our overtime (his) and doTerra commissions (me) towards this trip for over a year now and we’re too excited to wait even a year. They had to embark on their annual scavenger hunt for this present which was a surprise at the very end of the morning.
With all of the Hoelzle children together in a household, shenanigans often arise. This year, Mom surprised us with our favorite childhood meal, “red weiners”!!! You can see our excitement below. Along with this meal, there are some strict meal guidelines one must follow: 1. Create an appropriate mashed potato volcano for the gravy to rest in before eating. 2. Enjoy this delicacy made of dollar store ketchup and hot dogs by pretending treating it like the best meal you’ve ever eaten.The family fantasy football league championship game down to me versus my older brother, BJ this year. The deciding game was MNF’s Dallas game. Off to Buffalo Wild Wings with the children in tow we went (tablets to keep them occupied…..boneless wings to keep BJ satisfied). The “Audrey” trophy sat atop our table the entire time, which attracted a large number of waiters coming over to join in on the rivalry. Here I am posing with MY new trophy as I was declared the winner early in the 4th quarter of the game. First time winning for me – woot woot!Safely buckled for the ride home with Mama!

Other fun memories I want to document:
– playing Pie Face and BeanBoozled for the first time with friends and family
– Scott and his lack of rhyming skills for the scavenger hunt
– my experiments with the Instant pot and mini cheesecakes for Christmas dessert
– Christmas extravaganza with Mallory and Travis at Warm Beach with 20 degree weather to see the Lights of Christmas (never again)
– Snow days and late starts to school
– Santa train with the McConkeys out in Blaine (must do if you didn’t get a chance this year)

On my favorite ornaments….

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For the past three years, I’ve added a photo ornament to my Christmas cards order from Tiny Prints and I love giving them away to grandparents and adding them to our ornament collections. This one was from the “just married” collection but I think it pertains to our first Christmas as a forever family as well.WonderBOY coming home from school with these adorable handmade ornaments are dang precious….this year, he chose to gift his to special Uncle Jake which makes my heart a teeny sad, but happy that he is spreading the handmade love around.This was our version of a  “baby’s first christmas” ornament by gluing sweet pictures of the kiddos to snowflakes and writing on the back. It will be fun to look back on these in years to come and remember their sweet faces the first couple of months they lived with us.

Another Tiny Prints ornament from our first crazy and lovey year together in 2014.

This was a very PIN-spired ornament I made the first year we lived in our home. I love the imprint of our key (although it’s ironic because I don’t think I’ve used that key even one time since I’ve lived here). Our address is hiding under that green star. 

Once my first niece was born, I thought it would be cute to document her adorable little hand as a Christmas ornament. Now that my brother has three adorable little ladies, these are some of my favorite ornaments to unpack.And last but not least, one of my childhood bests, Taryn, made this for me in high school and I love love love it. So creative even before Pinterest Tare!!!

Tonight is our annual sleepover and movie marathon sleeping around the Christmas tree where I can’t wait to admire all of this cuteness!

Oh Christmas cards oh Christmas cards….

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I love receiving Christmas cards and putting them up on our wall for the Christmas season (and if I’m being honest, they usually stay there until April/May due to pure laziness how much I love them). I started putting them into small mini-albums after the season is over to display during the following Christmas season on our coffee table. Now that we’re into year 4 of receiving cards as a couple/family, it’s been so fun to see our friends and family grow and grow in their size and in their adventures. It definitely puts the passage of time into huge perspective and positive nostalgia and memories are some of the best parts of the holiday season.
Here is a peek at all of my mini-albums from years past. I keep it pretty simple with just a cover and back cut from one 12×12 piece of scrapbook paper. In the early years, I got fancy and added some journaling about our traditions and favorite presents from that Christmas season. Then….we got kids. Ain’t no one got time for fancy.What do you do with your Christmas cards? Leave a comment below….since I work so hard in taking those pictures and choosing the right font and personalizing that return address sticker, they better not be in the recycling bin right??? (insert wink….why don’t blogs have emojis yet….insert frustrated face).

Countdown to Christmas

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There are all sorts of drool-worthy advent/countdown calendars popping up on my Facebook and Pinterest feeds yesterday and today (touche crafty friends, touche). Although ours is humble in physical appearance, it is mighty in emotional and spritual impact. Plus, it’s super easy to whip out in about an hour or so!

We make 24 paper strips to make one long paper chain. Last year, we used up some of my 12×12 paper stash left over from my Treasury of Memories days. This year? Upcycling those beautiful Trader Joe shopping bags….kraft + Christmas decor? Can’t go wrong…..image1

On each individual link/strip, we work as a family to write down two things. We write down a bible verse each day to read together as a family (all part of the Christmas story but told from different books in the bible – see tradition #4 of this blog post). Each day, we also write down a challenge or an activity that we want to participate in to keep focused on loving others and being more mindful during this holiday season. Today, for example, the mission was for WG and WB to play/talk with a new friend at school. They absolutely love taking off the chain link each morning and then processing the outcome on the way home from school or at talk time at night.

Other examples of activities/challenges might include:
Pray as a family
Watch Rudolph and talk about a time we were bullied
Random Acts of Kindness Day (a tradition me and hubby started pre-kids)
Christmas light tour with hot cocoa!
Buy presents for “adopt-a-family” and deliver
Any favorite family tradition (gingerbread house, sledding, etc.)
Make Christmas cookies together

It may already be December 2nd but it’s never too late to create your own mission Christmas countdown! If you have any other fun countdown ideas, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear them…..