Hello friends, what a year it’s been! I wanted to share our Christmas letter from the year:

As the calendar flips over to December, I find myself ordering our Christmas cards. Suddenly, I remember the date. December 5, 2023… the day our lives changed forever. As you know, we lost Thomas’s mom, Marcia, this year. But it was all the way back to this time last year that our world truly got turned upside down. Marcia would spend the rest of her months on this earth in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, to finally be brought home on hospice only to pass from this life days later. It’s a sobering thought; how quickly life passes. How our lives can change in a single day. In 2024, we experienced several losses and a lot of heartache, but found joy. We were able to enjoy a lovely vacation at the beach! Thomas has had many successful days in the woods hunting this fall, while enjoying some time off work. I was again very busy traveling to photograph several incredible weddings this year. The Lord is so good!

Christmas is my favorite season. I love decorating, buying gifts, baking cookies, and spending time with my favorite people. It just makes you feel different… doesn’t it? Although all of these things are wonderful, the reason we celebrate Christmas isn’t just to be with our loved ones or give presents. It’s to reflect back on the greatest gift ever given to man, redemption.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” -Romans 3:23-24

If you’re missing a loved one this holiday season, or are full of brokenness, heartache or hurt, I want to encourage you to look to the Savior. There you find peace, inexpressible joy, and God’s true love. He loved us so much to give everyone a choice… free will. He could’ve made us robots, or puppets, but instead gave us a choice to experience His amazing grace.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:6-8

Marcia knew this truth. And this is truly the only reason why we have such peace among the grief of losing her. As I find myself both giddy and sad at the same time this season, there is hope. There is hope, not just the feeling of desire for a certain thing to happen or wishful thinking for a certain outcome… but a true hope, the hope of Christ: the confident certainty and expectation that God will do what He has promised. He has come for a broken, lost and sinful world. Our Immanuel, God with us; and He is coming again, so there will be no more sickness, sadness, dying or pain!

He is always good, not matter the circumstance. He is faithful. He is coming… Is your heart prepared this Christmas? Praying for peace, joy and love to fill your hearts in the new year!

See you in the new year, friends!

xoxo,
Zoe