our family traditions and rituals

February 1, 2023

in the past year, we’ve been asking ourselves about each and every holiday and celebration: “what would truly excite us about this day? what do we want do together? what would be fun to do now and as our family grows? how can we make this day a special celebration? what traditions do we want to have as a family?” and while, yeah, it was because we now had a child and I wanted our lives peppered with joyful traditions and intentional celebrations, there’s also another added bonus: simplification.

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how we celebrate valentine's day

January 13, 2023

I love holidays. An extra excuse to plan family traditions and create special rituals? Sign me up.

And, shockingly, I actually used to not like Valentine’s Day. But when I realized it was another day I could show my favorite people how much I love them? I then loved Valentine’s Day.

So I did what I do with any holiday: I asked myself, “What could we do that would make me so excited for this day? What would be such an enjoyable for us to celebrate this holiday? What do I want our children to remember as traditions?”

Weeee! I love dreaming about traditions.

And I decided this: I wanted to eat heart-shaped food and I wanted to make gift baskets. That combo would really excite me for Valentine’s Day. So I took this epiphany and this line in our budget (aka how we prioritize traditions + celebrations) - and from there, I made a tangible plan on how we’d love to celebrate Valentine’s Day:

We’d display our favorite books about love, Valentine’s Day, and kindness in KK’s bookshelf in our den. I’ll take a picture when we do this - all I have right now is a photo of our January bookshelf. (We have this bookshelf and I painted it with this white paint. Here’s our “winter” Amazon board with all of our December - February books.)
I’d make Brett’s favorite

our christmas eve box

October 14, 2021

Years ago, Brett and I did the typical exchanging of Christmas gifts for a bit. Gut then we realized, we were - I’ll admit it - getting bored with the monotony of it all.

“What do you want for Christmas?” “I don’t know, what do you want?”

I started seeing the tradition of the Christmas Eve Box for kids and that got me thinking: could we do something similar to that? Then I loved the something they want/need/wear/read gift rule and I was like, “Could we do something like that, but make it our own version?” Soon after I was infatuated with all the “Year of Dates” gift ideas and I was like HOLD THE PHONE CAN THIS BE INCORPORATED TOO.

sunday grill and chill

February 5, 2021

when I was suuuuper pregnant with KK, Brett asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day.

so I said, “I want Grill and Chill. every Sunday. for the next year.”

let me back up a second.

when I was a teacher, I had a coworker

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50+ things to do at home, haley wynn style

March 14, 2020

I am a homebody - I love being home, I love curating a cozy home, I love investing time to create a home (and lifestyle) I love.

So now that we may be looking at some upcoming time doing social distancing for a hot minute, I thought - in an effort to keep things in a positive light about the uncertainty we’re facing - I’d create a list of things that I do, I’ve done, or I’m planning to do at home. AKA if you’d like to know what you can do around the house, Haley Wynn style.

It’s safe to assume I’ll be in these joggers and these slippers for a hot minute.

And know that I’ve ordered a bag of Hershey’s kisses the size of a toddler from Amazon.