Happy New Year!

We had a quiet NYE at home this year!  Well mostly quiet.  We were all in bed early and only I woke up to our giant neighborhood fireworks display at midnight.

I made sure to pick up festive things for my family and stuck with our traditional menu of appetizers & crepes.  The kids love it!  You don't have to host a big party or have tons of guests to go all out for your family.  My crew was so excited about our festive set up.

Mr. Mittens always matches the NYE party decor so well.

Leo help me set the fancy table and was so excited for his fancy mocktail - cherry lemonade.

All the appetizers!

Homemade crepes with all the toppings for dessert.  The kids love to make the crepes and add their favorite toppings.  This was my favorite combo.

Did you stay in or go out for NYE?

Top 9 of 2025

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a great holiday season.  Ours was lovely.  Busy around Christmas and then lots of slow days at home.  Christmas break went a little too fast and we're all dragging a bit today.

I always love to see my Top 9 posts of the year on instagram.  They aren't always the top 9 moments of the year, but they usually capture the highlights.

1. Wrapping up my first year of teaching kindergarten felt like a big milestone!  I learned a new grade, jumped back into teaching after 11 years away and we adjusted to life at a new school.

2 & 4 Birthdays!  We had fun parties for the kids in the Spring.  March, April, May kid birthdays means that Spring is filled with birthday fun every year.

3. Our first family cruise!  Kevin surprised me with a balcony - I thought we walked into the wrong room haha - and we had a blast.  We can't wait for our next cruise in June.

5. Spring break in TN!  We had a blast.

6. Easter family pic.

7. An epic group costume for Olive and her besties at Halloween.

8. Merry Christmas Eve!  Also our engagement anniversary.

9. We had so much snow and ice last winter.  We survived 3+ days without power at home thanks to Kevin's cool camping and survival gear.  We stayed warm at home with the cats.  It was a wild few days.

I'd agree with all of those moments + Pumpkin!  Adding him to the family was definitely a highlight of the year.  He's the sweetest and helped Mr. Mittens mellow out.  They are the best brothers playing nonstop and snuggling when they get worn out.  Cats really are best in pairs!

Cheers to a happy, healthy new year!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  

Fletcher said it best - It was weirdly warm, but I think this was my best Christmas ever!

It was in the 60s and humid for Christmas which was very odd.  Check out the steamy windows on Christmas morning.  That was weird, but the rest was great.

Kevin's parents hosted Christmas Eve.

Candlelight Christmas service at church is our favorite.  We got to sit near several friends.

Christmas morning!  No one woke up crazy early.  And no one was up crazy late buildling Christmas gifts.  We wrapped after the kids went to bed.  We even had time to watch a Christmas movie.

Leo was so excited for Christmas!

Pumpkin's first Christmas.

Nana (in red) hosted Christmas lunch.  These two are my favorite.  They are both in their upper 80s and two of my very favorite people.

A table full of desserts at Nanas.

Christmas dinner at my parent's house.  Everything was decorated so pretty.

My brother made the yummiest Mexican meal.

We all got really fun gifts!  Olive was thrilled with the beauty product snackle box she got from her cousin.

And my parents surprised us with a crafty Christmas gift.  They had all of our Christmas cards shrunk down and framed as ornaments.  It was so fun to see our yearly Christmas cards framed!  The kids had never seen some of our early cards without kids.  It was such a fun surprise.  I can't wait to decorate a tree with these photo ornaments next year.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

I hope your Christmas was wonderful, too.

Christmas Break Fun

We squeezed in as much Christmas fun as possible before Christmas!

I have always wanted to make neighbor treat boxes at Christmas with menus I made on Canva, my favorite Christmas goodies and deliver them to friends.  I finally made that happen this year.  Finishing school on December 19th is such a nice thing.  I made six different treats.  It was so fun to make them and my friends loved everything.  One neighbor texted Kevin and said - I don't know how you don't weigh 500lbs!?  Your wife's treats are all delicious! haha

Matching Christmas pjs with Olive any chance we get.  And look at sweet Pumpkin.

A quick 45 minute road trip up to visit my parent's in Santa Claus, IN.  Their house at Christmas Lake is decorated for Christmas year round and the town is extra fun this time of year.

Hardy was excited to see us.

Leo brought his elves to hide.

So many photo ops.

Leo said he didn't really want to talk to Santa this year.  Then he changed his mind as Christmas was quickly approaching.  Good thing the Santa in Santa Claus was still working.

I met up with my besties for a Christmas dinner.  I drive an hour north, they drive an hour south and we meet up for dinner.  This year we had to reschedule, change locations and adjust some things, but we made it happen!  We did a favorite things exchange that was so much fun.

We all came home with a really fun assortment of gifts.  Look at that cute personalized ornament for the four of us.  I'm lucky to have these sweet ladies in my life.

We squeezed in a dentist appointment.  Fun fact: Leo's favorite place to hang out is the dentist's office.  He loves the ladies, loves our dentist, chats and laughs through his whole appointment and loves the treasure box.

Parlor donuts!  Yum!

We drew A LOT of Christmas robots.

Olive helped me make Christmas sugar cookies.  She did the icing and I did the cookie cutting.

We were all ready for a fun Christmas break and I'm so thankful that it's gotten off to a really fun start!

Elf Business

That's a wrap on our elf business this year!  The kids loved it.  I loved it.  And I'm happy to report that there was only one close call of nearly forgetting to do elf activities before I went to bed.

Here's what our elves were up to for the second half of December.

Do some Christmas baking with us!

It's so cold outside - even the toilet paper is freezing!

Surprised the kids with their favorite drinks!  Chilled and ready to enjoy.

Let's go out for Mexican tonight!

The only coal you're getting this year is candy coal & exploding coal!

Elf rock band.  I gathered some elf friends for this band.

Leo had so much fun playing with the extra elves for days.  Don't ask us how many times we all played "Find the elves".  Even the cats joined in on the elf fun.

We caught some Christmas critters!

What game do elves play after they eat Taco Bell?  FART NITE.  The boys loved this one.

Road trip to Santa Claus, IN!

Play Candy Crush with us!

That's a wrap!  See you next year!

Our elves kept busy this month!  Leo told me it was the best part of his day to wake up and see what the elves were up to.  So the tradition will continue and our elves - Holly, Jolly & Chris will be up to some fun stuff in 2026.