Remembering Aiden at Christmas

A few days ago I had the chance to guest post on the Small Bird Studios blog during the series "12 Days of Christmas With You in Heaven". The series was put together by my lovely friend Fran and allows several BLMs the chance to share special ways they will remember their babies at Christmas.  This series is STILL going on so please go by and read the other posts! It's truly amazing what other BLMs are doing to remember their little ones.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on Aiden's candle holder! I'm so glad you like it and I can't wait to see what all of you come up with! If you didn't get to see it you can read the post here and get the tutorial on how to make the candle holder. Just as a little update I have made this again with spray gloss and I like using it better than the paint on gloss. You can check out Aiden's candle holder right here:

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As a baby loss mom I do everything in my power to keep my son's memory alive and make sure he is always a part of the daily lives of our family and close friends. I know many of you have shared ways you are including your babies in your holiday and I also know many people are still looking for ways to include their babies. Today I want to share with you some of the other special ways we're including Aiden in our Christmas celebration this year.  

Last year Christmas was a painfully hard time because we were less than 2 months into our grief.  I wasn't able to do a lot to honor Aiden but then again I wasn't able to do a lot period......  

The one thing I was able to do last year was get this beautiful ornament with his footprints on it that is a treasure to us:

This ornament was made by Kristi at Bugabooo Jewelry. She's an angel mommy herself and her son Alex was the inspiration for her shop. You can check out her Etsy shop and Facebook page if you have some time- she makes beautiful remembrance jewelry and ornaments.

Last year I ordered Aiden's ornament so late and she still got it to me before Christmas- amazing!!!! We were so proud to place it on our tree last year and we actually had several made for his grandparents, aunts, and godparents to put on their trees as well. The ornament has stayed close to his urn since last Christmas but once the Christmas tree went back up the ornament was given a special place once again. Here are a few pics of it on the tree:

I've decided that Aiden will get some new ornaments every year. This year I purchased one ornament that's still on it's way and I also took on the project of making an ornament myself. Here is the ornament I purchased:

I love it and can't wait to get it in the mail! 

For my homemade ornament I actually got the idea from my support group at Bo's Place and it was pretty simple to make. One of the projects they had us complete during a session was to fill a glass ornament with ribbon and strips of paper. The strips of paper were used to write messages to our babies and at any time we could go in and add more strips to the ornament. So anytime you want to write a note to your baby you can. Isn't that lovely???? The paper we used was beautifully colored wrapping paper and makes the ornament just gorgeous.

So for Aiden's ornament this year I found some beautiful sparkly scrapbook paper, gold letters, pearls, ribbon, small snowflake ornaments, and a some glitter of course! I put it all together in the glass ornament and this is what I came up with:

What do you think? I love it! It turned out just how I wanted it to! Here's a few pictures of the ornament on the tree this year:

Yep I'm being a super crafty mama this year!

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Aiden also has a beautiful stocking going up this year. Last year I ordered new stockings for Nygel, myself, and Aiden and I LOVED the way they turned out. But after we lost him I just couldn't bring myself to hang any of the stockings. So they stayed in their packages.

This year Aiden's stocking will be hung around the fireplace with all the other family stockings. We won't be purchasing gifts for his stocking but rather filling it with letters from the family. I've asked everyone to hand write him a note or letter and we'll add them to the stocking. We'll read them at some point during the day on Christmas. I think it's a great way for us to share our love with him that day. I love writing to Aiden so I'm going to be placing a nice LONG letter in his stocking!

Once I get all the stocking hung and the fireplace decorated I'll post more pics so you can see all our stockings hung up for the holiday.

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The next thing I did was get a special Christmas picture made with Aiden's name to include in our Christmas cards. It's important to me that people remember that Aiden is a part of our family even though he lives in Heaven. I want to make sure that everyone has this special picture to put out with all their other cards and hopefully it will bring a smile to their faces every time they walk past and remember his beautiful life. Carly Marie took this amazing image for me:

Isn't it beautiful?!?! I plan to have a different picture done each year to include in our Christmas cards. I may even do the pictures myself a few times!

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We purchased a cure little pre-lit Christmas tree to put on our front porch this year. It's really lovely and sits in a nice brown planter pot. As you know dragonflies remind me so much of my little guy and we have them all over our front yard including his garden. I wanted to have some dragonflies on the outside Christmas tree as well and I was THRILLED when my mom and I found these cute guys!!! 

They are perfect!  Here is the outside tree on the porch when it's all lit up:

I'm loving my outside tree!

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Finally Nygel and I decided a while back that we are going to sponsor a child at Christmas each year who is the same age that Aiden would be. The holidays are about love and giving and for us giving to a child is such an appropriate way to remember our precious son. This year we will be helping a one year old little boy and it really warms my heart to know we'll be helping a child in need in honor of our sweet little Aiden. Hopefully we'll bring some light and happiness into his life the same way Aiden continues to fill our life with love and joy.

The Salvation Army has teamed up with JC Penny to set up a great Angel Tree program which allows you to help a child get what they need and want for Christmas. The great thing about it is you can search online the list of angels by age, location, and gender, review their wish list, shop for the items they need, and ship it all off right from home! Which is great for me as I'm doing ALL of our Christmas shopping this year online to decrease the amount of waddling around I have to do! If you are interested in sponsoring a child yourself take a look at their website here to get more information. Again I can't think of a better way to honor Aiden this year and every year.

So there you go- how we'll be remembering Aiden this Christmas. I'm sure as the years go on I'll come up with more ways or different things I'd like to do to include Aiden in the holidays. I can't wait until Baby Jack is old enough to help us remember his brother each year!

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As a way to celebrate Aiden and your angels this Christmas I'd like to do a special giveaway!!!!! YAY!!! I'm giving away an ornament similar to Aiden's. The exact ornament isn't available anymore but here is the image of the beautiful one that I'll be giving away in it's place:

This ornament is also made by Bugaboo Jewelry and it can be personalized with your baby's footprints/handprints, name, and birth date. If you'd like to enter please leave a comment with the name of the angel you would get this ornament to remember and also share a way you are celebrating/remembering your sweet baby this holiday season. The winner will have the ornament shipped directly to your home. This giveaway is open from now until Sunday, December 4th so I can order the ornament in time to get to you for Christmas. I'll announce the winner on Monday, December 5th!

I know the holidays are a hard hard time for BLMs. I'm wishing you lots of peace and strength as you go through them this year. Remembering your babies with you always...........