A Holiday with Heart blog tour

Today I am so honored to be a part of A Holiday with Heart tour hosted by Jennifer Stagg. If you are stopping by after visiting Sarahmdorseydesigns.blogspot.com welcome!

You may have seen my first Christmas tour of the yr, posted yesterday. While I hope you enjoy the photos just as much today, I am hoping you will find your self inspired in a different way today.
This post is all about traditions, what traditions does your family Have? What do you look forward to each season? My favorite thing about traditions, is there is no right or wrong. It’s about what you do as a family to make each season special. Each family is unique, even my kids each have a different tradition they look forward to each yr. For my daughter, she knows the Christmas season has come upon us when I pull out my favorite candle.

Many of our traditions are centered around the kitchen. Whether it’s baking my mothers plum cake recipe, or making treats to take to the neighbors. Each season we have many recipes that we just have to make or it doesn’t feel like Christmas!
Every Christmas, I am reminded of my Mom every where I look. She loved the Holidays. She also had a passion for decorating, she enjoyed helping me find just the right items for our first tree as a married couple. Then later on, when I was ready to add a second tree to our home, she would come up from texas with huge bins strapped to their vehicle, filled with items to help me decorate my home for the Holidays (my poor dad, between the two of us, he had no choice but to go along). Six yrs ago, on the day before Thanksgiving, my mom passed away. Somehow it’s always been fitting that she would return to live with our Father in Heaven, as we are celebrating the Birth of our Savior.
We bought as many poinsettias as we could get our hands on for her funeral. It’s now become a tradition for me to fill my home with poinsettias to remind me of the woman who raised me to be who I am today. The woman who taught me compassion, and kindness, who instilled a love of music in me, and the desire to create beauty. I am grateful to have to many positive memories of her during this season.

A favorite tradition of mine that my mother started when I was a teenager was reading Annie and Willies prayer to us every Christmas Eve. My siblings and I get together with our kids and read it every yr. A few yrs ago, my sister came across a recording of my mom reading it to all of us, what a gift! She burned each of us a copy so we will always be able to have her read it to us. You can read it [HERE] or you can purchase a copy [Here].

While my decor may change from yr to yr, I always incorporate the kids “Baby’s first Christmas” ornaments on the tree.

I just finished putting our tree up in the basement. I does have many items that we’ve had for yrs. I almost didn’t put it up this yr, I am so happy I did. I had forgotten how much I love that tree.


If you’re looking for a new recipe to try for the Holidays, we love Plum cake! It makes your home smell wonderful while it’s baking and it’s delicious!


click on the recipe below if you want to try it.
PlumCake

I’ve also linked a few items from this post. I found some cool bundt pans I’d like to try out! I also linked the lanterns hanging over my island since I always get alot of requests about where they’re from.

Next up is Julia from Cuckoo4design.com her blog is a must see!

May you have a beautiful Holiday season!
XoXo
Jen