Heidi Ryder Photography: The Blog » Southern California and Destination Wedding Photography

When I announced my participation in the Giving Is Awesome portrait giveaway just a few short weeks ago, I was hoping to receive at least one nomination for a deserving family, but I recieved so much more than that and the decision was a very difficult one.

It was so touching to sift through all the entries. I read stories of triumph, stories of despair, stories of strength and stories of hope. Unfortunately there were several entries where people nominated themselves, which unfortunately disqualified them since that was against the rules (sorry, folks – fair is fair). Ultimately, though, I know the right family won out because of the way I felt after reading their story.  The  patriarchs of the Armes family, Alan and Debbie, seem to be the epitome of what parents should be in my mind: kind, selfless and generous. Not being a parent yet myself, I can only imagine how fulfilling it must be to put your children first in all aspects and to teach them the value of giving. Their friend Natalie nominated them for this gift and it was obvious that she admires and loves this kind family greatly. In fact, I’ll let Natalie do the talking…

“Alan & Debbie are the proud parents of 4 amazing children.

With a houseful already, Alan & Debbie still make time to help other people. Alan volunteers with the local boy scouts & Baseball. They both cook food for people who are sick, new parents or even friends they know are just busy & overwhelmed. They are constantly watching other people’s kids for free, volunteer with their church, and they are always donating to local charities & homeless shelters.

They live life very simply, all four kids roomed together until recently when they decided to sacrifice their bedroom & now sleep in the back family room area so the boys could have a room and now the girls have a room too. That’s their lives, total sacrifice for their kids and others. Always giving & never asking for anything. Thus this Christmas season, I think the Armes’ family is totally be deserving because of all they’ve done for so many other people!”

So, congratulations, Armes family! I am so looking forward to meeting all six of you and making beautiful portraits of your beautiful family.

Merry Christmas to all! I’m going to enjoy some time with my own little family now. Hope you all are getting to spend time with people you love.

Even though we’re barely into our second year of marriage, Chris and I have spent several Christmases together already. And I don’t mean I spent a few hours at my house, he a few hours at his, and then we met up later in the day to exchange gifts. No, I mean we really spent Christmas together – I flew all the way to Colorado and spent the holiday with his entire family several years in a row, and I fell in love with them almost as hard as I fell for him.

I quickly grew to adore Christmas in Colorado and even before I was technically part of the family I always felt at home with the Ryders. The snow, the hot wassail, the board games, the laughter, the food – it’s all a warm and cozy combination of the things this Southern California girl thought only happened in movies. I suppose I always knew we wouldn’t be able to spend every Christmas in Colorado, but I was hoping it would be several more years until I had to experience a Christmas without snow again. But, alas, this year Chris and I won’t be making the trek to The Centennial State.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little inconsolable about it at first. After spending most of my life wanting for a snowy Christmas, all my dreams came true the first time I watched snow fall in Colorado and I really didn’t want to give up on that in this lifetime. But, my darling husband talked some sense into me (as he always does), and made me realize that this was the chance for us to start our very own Christmas traditions which will carry on through our lives together and will be remembered fondly by our children. Also! We could finally decorate a Christmas tree together. I was sold.

Since I had to live without snow this year I wanted to make sure every other part of our holiday experience was festive enough that I wouldn’t miss Colorado too much. So I wasted no time and insisted we go out and buy our first tree on Thanksgiving. So, after we stuffed ourselves with turkey at my Dad’s house, we headed out and picked our very first tree. We had prepared for it in the weeks before by picking out decorations. We struggled at first with the look we wanted our tree to have but ultimately decided to just pick out things we like and hope they all sort of come together in a way that makes sense. We’re not really designer people so a designer tree is so not us.

As soon as we got the thing home we realized the only place we could put it is right in front of our fireplace. That was and is sort of a bummer because we look forward to using our fireplace every winter! Unfortunately we have to miss out on that cozy-ness this year, but I’ll make that sacrifice for a tree. Note the stockings hung on the bookcase with care.

We ended up with what I like to call an “Enchanted Forest” look. It’s what I imagine a Christmas tree in the woods to look like if it had been decorated by the deer, squirrels, rabbits and birds. Obviously a tree in the forest cannot be complete without a crap-ton of owls, so there’s plenty of those on there, which makes me happy. We also have special ornaments sprinkled all over, starting with our “first” ornament that was purchased last year to commemorate our honeymoon in Sydney(1), and a creepy felted tree(5) to commemorate our first tree together. We bought it at UniqueLA and it makes us laugh every time we look at it. There’s also an adorable ceramic owl with our last name stamped into its belly(3),custom-made by JustPuff. I love looking at the sampling of the different owls we decorated the tree with.

But so far my favorite ornament is one I had made this year to remember our beloved dog by. It’s Frasier as a superhero, and I know it’s an ornament we’re going to remember fondly. I look forward to explaining this ornament to our children and telling them all about the grumpy old dog their mom and dad loved so much. It was made by Jennifer at Itty Bitties For You, and if you like adorable things you should definitely check out her shop.

And so, even though I’m still disappointed we won’t be in Colorado with the rest of the Ryder clan, I’m really looking forward to spending Christmas with my family this year and starting new Ryder traditions with my husband. Christmas is in ten days! I can hardly believe it.

Please help me make this Christmas even more special by nominating a deserving family for my portrait giveaway. I’ll choose the winner on the 20th and announce them here on Christmas Eve!