What Christmas Means to Me

You can probably tell when you speak to us (especially Matthew!) but we’re not originally from Georgia.

Though we’ve officially declared ourselves Georgia Peaches after living in the state for almost five years, we were both born and raised in South Florida.

In fact, after meeting each other on the first day of law school at Mercer, Matthew and I quickly discovered that our parents only lived 20 minutes away from each other back in Florida.

Because our parents live so close to each other and so far away from us, we make the trek down to Florida each year the week of Thanksgiving.

Our families spend the holiday together, we visit with old friends, and it’s a great time to reminisce about our shared roots.

When we were still in law school, we’d make the long trip down South again in December for Christmas break, since we had about three weeks off after a tortuous round of finals.

However, in the real world, there is no such thing as a three week break from reality, and we no longer go home for Christmas.

It kind of stinks that we aren’t with our parents for Christmas, but our new tradition of staying in Georgia has become really special to me.

In my opinion, one of the best things about being married is finding ways to make new traditions with your spouse, and get the chance to make the holidays a celebration of your very own.

Last year was the first year that we had a real Christmas tree, and collecting ornaments for it along with decorating it together has become one of our favorite things to do during the holidays.

This year on Christmas eve, after watching Home Alone (my favorite Christmas movie!!) in front of a crackling fire, Matthew had the great idea of making s’mores.

He went out in search of an open store, and on his third try, finally found a CVS that was open and sold all the fixings for the tasty treat.

As we toasted our marshmallows in our fireplace on random utensils we found in the kitchen, I felt my heart fill with joy.

We are our own little family now, and this is what our Christmas is.

Now that we’ve settled in Georgia, my parents come up to visit a couple of days after Christmas, and we get to do Christmas all over again with them!

My mom cooks a huge, delicious meal, and afterwards we all exchange gifts.

It’s so much fun to get to enjoy the spirit of Christmas for an extended amount of time, and it’s wonderful to spend time with my parents in our new hometown.

Whenever my dad is here, he always tells me my car is too dirty and begs me to let him clean it.

That’s right, begs me to let him clean my car.

He’s the greatest!

With each passing year, I realize that Christmas is less about the gifts you get (although they certainly were awesome this year!!) and more about the traditions you share with the people you love.

I’m so thankful to have an amazing, loving, supportive family to share the holidays and the rest of the year with.

I am blessed beyond measure by the people I have in my life, and wanted to take the time to let them know how special they all are.

I love all of you!!!!  So much!!!!

All my love,

B

I recently took this photo while second shooting for our dear friends Ashley + Graham and it was a big part of what inspired me to write this post.

The immense adoration and affection I have for my family helps make me aware of those relationships within the families of the couples whose weddings we shoot.

We always strive to photograph the moments and the memories that truly show the love between everyone present at the wedding, not just the bride and groom.

As a self-proclaimed daddy’s girl, this photo of the bride and her father right before walking down the aisle at the church fills me with so many emotions.

I’m honored I had the chance to be there for such a sweet moment, and that I had the opportunity to take this picture.