Happy Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve! Yippee! For Latinos that means that today we'll be having a HUGE Christmas dinner, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and counting down till midnight when we'll open our gifts! Since I'll be taking tomorrow off of blogging, though, I wanted to stop by today to just quickly share my last "holiday" inspired look! I also wanted to take a moment to share with you guys the reason behind my joy for this season and one of my most cherished Christmas moments! I want to preface this all by saying that when my family and I made the move to the States we moved into very humble circumstances. My first Christmas here is one that, although I don't remember clearly, is spoken of almost every Christmas season in my home to remind us of God's tender mercies and the gratitude we feel for the place we've reached as a family. It was a cold and quiet Christmas Eve night and my family and I sat gathered together in our small apartment. I can't quite remember if we had any Christmas decorations, if we did they would have been quite simple. My two sister's and I would have been somewhere between the ages of 6 to 2 years old. It was as we sat there, quietly celebrating, that my dad looked around to each of his little girls and felt an ache in his heart that he hadn't been able to get even one gift for us to share. We, of course, where happy regardless but still he sat in silence ruminating over his disappointment. As he sat, quietly wrapped in thought, there came a knock at the door. When my dad went to see who might be calling on such a night he found that there was no one at the door, instead there lay a carefully wrapped gift on the doorstep. As he looked around at the snowy surroundings to find the blessed stranger who might have left the gift, he found that there was no one in sight. He closed the door with a feeling of such great love and gratitude. As he was gently setting the gift down, there came another knock at the door. Once again, there was a gift placed on the doorstep but no giver in view. All through the night this process continued until when midnight came, and we where to open gifts, our small apartment was overflowing with gifts given from unseen hands. Now, the importance of this story isn't that we went from having no gifts to an abundance of gifts, rather, that a loving father's quiet and unspoken prayer was answered by an even greater and loving Father in Heaven. That there where people out there in tune with The Spirit so much that they answered those promptings and thus became unseen angels for a small family. Many Christmas' have since passed and there have been many seasons of abundance and many seasons of humility. Regardless of the grandeur that we may or may not have on a particular season, though, we know that the true reason we celebrate is to show our great joy that "God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son" and because he sent his Son we have the great and blessed opportunity to be with Him again and be re-united with loved ones beyond the veil! How deep and great is my joy for the Savior! "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room! And heaven and nature sing!"

sweater: c/o SheInside
skirt: c/o OASAP
socks: c/o Aerie
shoes: h&m similar
photos: Shailynn (She is the best!)

I don't want to ruin the message of this post with too much outfit talk so I'll keep it simple. If you want a more cozy/casual Christmas look this sweater and skirt are definitely for you! The sweater is so, so, cozy, warm and perfectly over-sized to hide your Christmas dinner pooch and this suede skirt is so soft and keeps things fun/flirty! Also, Shailynn is a MAGNIFICENT photographer and one of the sweetest girls I know! Seriously, girl has got it all! Plus, she makes me laugh like a goober, if you couldn't tell. If any of you are in need of photos, she is your girl! I mean, she made ME look good and I'm a gosh dang awful model! Anyway, that is all! I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and take sometime to consider the reason why we celebrate!

Much love!