Winter Casual

Hello friends! I may have shot this look pre-snow but the outfit is one I'm still wearing in the January cold (plus my cocoon of a puffer coat for any outside speed walking from car to building). Black denim becomes my favorite go-to for winter ... perhaps it's that slimming effect after all the holiday cookies?  Regardless, black feels more wintry and chic after all the lighter blues and sweatshirts reign supreme in comfort. A little off the shoulder number is fun as an alternative and bonus for me, works just as nicely over a leotard in my dance classes. A very 80's high hip leotard and off the shoulder sweatshirt sort of image is likely coming to mind right now, right? Lots of hip rolls and headbands. Ha! Yeah, it's exactly like that. 😉

Jacket - Zara

Jeans and scarf - Madewell

Sweatshirt - J. Crew

Thank you to Erin Jean Photo for the beautiful photography. 💗

Christmas Day Jammies

As is our tradition, we spent the night at my sister's home on Christmas Eve. Though the first set of pictures were taken the day before when we were still at home, we planned to all have on our plaid jammies on Christmas morning as well. 

The rest of the pictures are from Christmas morn, of the kids crowding around the tree to take in all the goodness that Santa left for them. And the rest of the pictures are back at home, opening our Christmas crackers, another little tradition carried on from our South Africa days. 

Happy New Year everyone!

 Christmas morn ...

And back home, having some fun with the Christmas crackers. 

 And a picture from Christmas Eve day at church. 

More December Magic

Here's a look at one picturesque Sunday afternoon in December, with Scarlet and her cousin dressed in their Christmas best, tree ornaments turning them into glittering magical unicorns.

 And fort building turning into nap time. 

Hello again friends. It's been a little while.

I have a little bit of our December to share here, mostly because I want to have these photos to look back on in years to come as I'm becoming worse and worse at making my family photo albums and desperately need to catch up. So I hope to squeeze in a couple more posts.

But honestly, December was a really hard month for us and so I'm left completely deflated actually. We lost our beloved Ouma, best known as Debbie, my beautiful mother-in-law and our kids incredibly dear grandmother. I did terribly, handling all of that, maybe even worse as this little bit of time has passed. I think I'd like to write something eventually, but we'll see. It won't be an easy post ... It was really hard.

But mixed into the sadness and the tears, there were some wonderfully sweet moments over Christmas-time, as the season so easily brings. It's impossible to miss the beauty, as it's so sweetly joyous. I wanted to share some of those, as there were many. Not all carefully photographed this year, but still etched into my memory.