When you adopt a teenager you feel like you have a lot of time to make up for! Creating Christmas memories can be overwhelming if you’re not careful. My heart is that the traditions and memories that we make each year, will be carried on for generations to come, but most importantly, that Christ would be at the center of it all. I had the ornament above made the year we first met Teck. I know, I know, I left you hanging in my last post. I promise I’ll share the rest of her story before Christmas!
Anyway, that was the year we became foster parents in an attempt to help her escape the life she had been living for 6 years, since being brought from her home in Malaysia to Georgia. I was pregnant with Elli after 9 years of trying and I wanted nothing more than to be Teck’s Mama and give her the family she so desperately wanted. We were able to see her briefly at a Christmas party for the foster kids, but our contact for almost a year was only through Facebook.
Last year we created this DIY felt Christmas tree that will last us for a few more years for sure! You can get the pdf for your ornaments and step by step instructions HERE.
We also started doing a nightly devotion using the Jesse Tree ornaments and scripture guide. We have a hard time keeping Elliana engaged right before bed, but it’s a lot of fun and helps us slow down together as a family. How cute are those ornaments?
Picking out our Christmas tree is always so much fun! Our church hosts something called Buy a Tree, Change a Life which raises money for children locally and in Cambodia by selling Christmas trees and wreaths. It’s a great way to ensure your money is doing much more than buying a tree that will die in 4 weeks. You should check to see if you have a BATCAL location near you!
One of my favorite traditions is sending (and receiving) Christmas cards! Phil created a way for me to display them all using only 4 materials. Last year we used Tiny Prints to create our cards and I just loved the way they turned out, so we decided to go with them again this year. Our sweet friend Mel McLellan from the McLellan Blog had recently did a Senior shoot for Teck and a mini session of our family, so I had a hard time choosing a card because I wanted to use 50 pictures! If you ever have that problem, just go straight for the tri-fold format.
We went with the ‘Wonderful Life’ style because 2016 represents a wonderful life in the Sokic household! It’s the year we finally made Teck an official member of our family AND we bought a home here in Franklin, Tennessee!
I think one of my favorite things about Tiny Prints is that you can customize everything from the colors and text, to the fancy lettering on your envelopes and my favorite, personalized postage! {I like to address the envelopes by hand, but Tiny Prints can do that for you too!} If you hurry, you can get your cards delivered by 12/16 and use their coupon code JINGLEBELL for 40% off!
Have you created your Christmas cards yet?
Disclosure: Big thanks to Tiny Prints who partnered with me to bring you this post. I love them and every opinion is 100% my own. They are my go-to for cards, stationery, canvases, prints, photo gifts and paper goods.
I love this post! The card display is amazing!!!
Thanks Eryka!! Happy Saturday!
I absolutely love all these sweet traditions! And can we talk about your gorgeous cards?! So beautiful!
I feel like I’ve left out so many, but blog posts should only be so long! 🙂
Thanks girl! I just love Tiny Prints!
I love your cards! Tiny Print is my go to and they never fail me. Also, your card display is genius! I love that idea. I may have to do it 🙂
You should do it! It’s pretty easy to piece together!
This post made my heart so happy.
You all such a beautiful family- and the way you have opened up your home and hearts- what a beautiful testimony!!!! Merry Christmas to you and yours.
She was meant to be with us since we first met her!
You have such a beautiful family. And such a big heart. The world needs more people like y’all
Thank you Lindsey! She is a blessing to our family!
I so love the card display and the felt tree! Genius!
Thanks girl! My hubs is kinda genius like that when it comes to woodworking!
That card display is gorgeous! I am always just taping our cards to the wall and I know it looks tacky as hell haha. What a sweet story about Teck! I’m sure you all will have a wonderful Christmas as a family!
I love all of these ideas so much! And your cards look great too!!
What a cute idea for displaying Christmas cards! I am so inspired now to not let them pile up.
I absolutely love this post! You are creating amazing memories for sure!
What a great bunch of traditions! And your Christmas card looks amazing! love that you can have so many pics!
This card is so pretty! And I completely missed that they offer personalized postage! I HAVE to do it next year. So cool!
Oh I love the Christmas Card Display! Totally making this soon!
Oh I love that you shared this. Your story first if all.. is amazing second this card is GORGEOUS!
I owe it all to our dear friend that captured the images!!
ah this post gave me the chills! what a beautiful family you have, and gorgeous cards to match!
Tiny prints has the best picture service ever! Also I love that felt Christmas tree at the top of the post.
What a beautiful family! That Christmas card display is perfect!
Thank you so much! Merry Christmas!
I love all of this so much!!
It’s like you read my mind and knew exactly what traditions I’ve been thinking about! I love the Jesse Tree! I was thinking about doing it this year, but didn’t know too much about it, I would love to hear more about it and how you guys do it! And I was totally going to make a felt tree as well this season, because our toddler insists on taking all of the ornaments of our tree. I’ll check out how you did it, and maybe it will be done before christmas!! haha
That’s so funny! We also decorate a gingerbread house but this year they were sold out everywhere so we got a chocolate cookie train. HA! It was even more fun! The Jesse Tree is great. Just get the ornaments and a book that helps you read scriptures each day leading up to Christmas! I have heard the Ann Voskamp one is great!
I so wanted to do a felt tree for the kids this year, but never got around to it. Maybe next year…
Yes! Definitely do it next year! You can leave it up for ages too.
[…] was the year that we became a family five! I always use my annual Christmas card to give our friends and family an overview from our year. Remember when we used to have to […]