Merry Mondays - week 3

Today I am proud have Tonya Joy participate in my Merry Mondays blog series. Tonya and I met through my friend Britain's blog. She is wife to Jason, and mommy to 3 precious little girls, Ella, Ava and Mia. Tonya is also expecting a baby BOY in just about 20 weeks! I have always admired Tonya's creativity. She makes everything in her life so beautiful! Her children, her marriage, her faith, her blog, her photography...they all have a simple, graceful beauty to them that I really enjoy. I also admire Tonya for making the very hard decision to put her career on the back burner for the time being while she grows her family. I think as a mother I constantly walk a fine line of giving and being everything to my children without letting ME get lost in the shuffle. Tonya has shown me that it is possible to have it all, and be good at it all, when you have perfect priorities and patience! I asked Tonya what her favorite family Christmas tradition is and and here is what she shared:

One of our favorite traditions to kick the holidays off starts the day after Thanksgiving. We set aside the entire evening and dedicate it to welcoming Christmas into our home. This year, we started out by having a nice dinner out together as a family. When then go to to the local Christmas tree lot (or good old Target!) and find our perfect Christmas tree. The rest of the evening is spent decorating our home. BUT...we always end the night gathered together around the Christmas tree, eating sugar cookies and talking about the real meaning of Christmas. To Jason and I, our most important tradition is to teach our children each year the real meaning of Christmas and hope that they will remember that it is the birth of Christ that we are celebrating. That the gifts we give to each other and loved ones are to represent the gift that Christ gave to all of us in our lived. It is a value we hope will always remain a tradition in their lives as well. 

Thank you Tonya for sharing your family and tradition with us. I whole heartedly agree! CLICK HERE to go to Tonya's blog and see more of her beautiful family and photography genius. 

{On another note, it's raining here today. Pretty hard and long...for Southern California. I decided to let the girls stay home from school because I didn't want to deal with getting everyone in and out of the car in the rain. So silly right!? The littlest change in the weather completely throws SoCal-ers off, we are so spoiled. We are presently baking up a cookie storm with Christmas music blaring and ELF on the TV in the the background. I think it's my favorite Christmas movie of all time! I saw on GMA that it's 11 below (BELOW!) in Chicago today. Oh Kate and Paul! Get yourself on that jet plane!}