Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, Friends!  The Christmas season is off and running here.  We've been busy squeezing in all the holiday goodness this week.  Did you catch my blog posts this week?  It was a good week on the blog!

Our Favorite Amazon Gifts for Toddlers to Tweens - I'm so excited for my kids to open #1 and #10 and #11 are high on my big kid's wish lists.  You'll find everything from glow in the dark basketballs, to talking globes to metal cars with doors that open.

DIY Citrus Christmas Garland - this might be my favorite DIY of the year!

10 Tips for a Low Stress Christmas Season - #1 was life changing for us this year!  And I'll be doing #3 every week from now through the new year.

Now onto my favorite moments of the week!

1. Go Aces!

University of Evansville's basketball team is having a great season and their games have been really fun.  We took the whole family to the game last weekend and we won in overtime.  My dad sits behind us and the kids love all the snacks and excitement.  Fletcher got to high five Ace Purple for the first time!  And Leo made it through his longest game.  He does much better with the 1pm games vs the 7pm games.

2. Real Tree

We took the kids to get a real tree and it's so pretty!  We got the biggest one we could find that would fit in our van this year.  They picked out a good one.  And Kevin was thrilled to find the trees on sale and he had a coupon.  Win-win!

3. Rock Me, Mama

Leo hasn't let me rock him to sleep in ages, but he was feeling sick this week and requested that I rock him.  I was in heaven.  It took me back to his tiny baby days and he woke up feeling much better the next day.  Babies don't keep!

4. Hot Glue Your Gingerbread houses

We tried the trick to hot glue your gingerbread houses and it worked so well!!  Kevin and I did the hot gluing and the kids had extra icing for decorating.  We'll hot glue our houses from now on.

5. Sock Critters

The big kids get subscriptions to Highlights magazines from their grandparents and Fletcher got the idea to try to make some sock critters this week.  His angler fish turned out really cute!  He gathered the supplies, made a plan and I did the hot gluing.  He was really proud of his work.

6. Salad Self Care

I've been trying hard to eat one BIG salad every day.  I feel better when I'm eating healthy foods and this big salad is so delicious!  I do a mix of spinach, greens, and all the veggies I can find.

7. Holly Bushes

Our holly bushes are growing lie crazy.  I can't wait for them to get big enough for me to trim at the holidays.  Olive really wanted holly bushes at our new house.  We didn't get to pick our landscaping so you can imagine our surprise when we moved in during December to find two lovely holly bushes planted out front.  She was thrilled and I love knowing that God cares about all the little details of our lives.

8. Holiday Choir Concert

Olive's choir concert was this week.  She did a great job and enjoyed it so much!

9. Elf on the Shelf

Our elves - Holly, Jolly & Chris - have been busy.  The kids love finding them every morning!

10. Christmas Brunch #1

I had two Christmas brunches this week.  One was an ornament exchange and brunch and it was really nice.  My parents kept Leo so it was extra fun to hang out with my mom friends.  Give me all the holiday clothes, punch and festive food with friends!

11. Surprise Sweater

Kevin surprised me with a cute new sweater on St Nick's Day.  It's classic and cozy!  Good job, Kev!

12. Yumboxes

The kids have been busy at school and asked for extra full yumboxes lately.  I try to pack in all the fruits and veggies and filling foods for them.

13. Lounging Leo

I crack up every time I walk into the room to see Leo lounging in the recliner.  It's his favorite spot.

14. Christmas Brunch #2

Leo was my date for my second Christmas brunch.  His buddies came with their moms and it was really fun.  The food was delicious.  I'd never had cheese grits before, but I can't wait to get that recipe from my friend.  Leo wolfed down her cranberry cake.  She sent us all home with jars of her homemade granola and it was precious with my Bible study friends.

15. Throwback Christmas pictures

I love when these pictures pop up on my Facebook memories.  It's wild to see how much the kids have grown from just 3 or 4 years ago.  I love this time of year!

Squishy baby Santa Leo.  I saved that hat to use as his Christmas tree topper now.

16. Holiday Helpers

The big kids are helping me assemble Christmas cards this year.  They're such good help!  It's hard to keep up with them stamping and stuffing envelopes.  Fletcher came up with the most efficient way to stamp the cards possible which made my efficient loving heart happy.

Whew!  What a fun week!  I'm ready for a low key weekend this weekend :)  See you back here on Monday!  I hope you have a great time with the people you love.

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