Christmas Break Recap

We had a great Christmas Break!  It ended up being 3 weeks instead of 2 which was a fun surprise that no one saw coming.  We stuck close to home and did all of our favorite things.

Mr. Mittens seemed to enjoy having us around more.  He was a menace to our Christmas decorations so I'm hopeful he'll outgrow that by the time next Christmas rolls around.

We picked up fun lunches and had van picnics.  Culvers and Chick-Fil-A were favorites.

I made some big meals and shared them with Kevin's Grandma.

We watched several movies and ate candy corn (popcorn topped with candy!).

My 2025 treat to myself was buying a Walmart delivery subscription.  I love grocery pick up, but I don't love spending my weekends doing that.  I'm hoping grocery delivery will mean more time to do what I want with my family.

Leo has been really into writing words lately.  He's always asking us to spell out words for him.  He wanted more Doritos last week so he grabbed my grocery list and asked me to spell out Doritos for him.  Haha.  Then he's been practicing writing his full name.

We made a couple of bundt cakes.  Delicious boxed cake with extras and homemade frosting.

We got to go to some friend Christmas gatherings.

Olive and I went thrifting and found some treasures.

Kevin had a fun trip with his Dad and brother to Las Vegas.  We were sad to see him go, but made sure to fill our days with extra fun things.

We stocked up on favorite foods at our favorite grocery store.  I will be sad when Leo outgrows riding in the cart while we shop.

We love Schnucks donuts!  I let the kids pick out a favorite donut + a new one to try.  They loved it and it only cost a couple of dollars to make their morning.

I don't decorate a ton for Valentine's Day, however, I had to have this garland from Target!  I loved the details and mixed fabric.  Now I can't wait to do a Valentine's Day mantle.

The house was looking a little bare after the kids helped me take down all the Christmas decor.  I trimmed some things from the yard to make a free bouquet.  That was a good idea, but these two rascals kept attacking my stems making a big mess.  I found the pefect spot to keep the cats away and am enjoying a free bouquet.

Cute chaos.

You know I LOVE bundt cakes, but the pans are a little hard to store.  I saw an idea to hang them and got the supplies at Lowes.  I love having them hanging up in my pantry.  They're pretty and so easy to use.  Two are vintage - from my grandma and Kevin's and two are just ones that I've collected.  I can't wait to watch my collection grow.

We tried these Sister Schuert's cinnamon rolls.  They were delicious!  The closest to homemade cinnamon rolls I've found.  I used homemade butter cream frosting instead of the cream cheese frosting.  They would be so fun to deliver to a new mom, a grandma or anyone who would enjoy a sweet treat.

I aslo had time to try some new recipes over the break!  These cheesey bread was so good.  It felt good to have a little extra time to try out recipes.

And lots of kitty cuddles + late night shows for this night owl.  I watched some documentaries and got caught up on a few new series.  Penny was thrilled.  I was thrilled.  It felt good to do so many of our favorite things over break.

Now onto good things in 2025 with a fresh start to the year!  We're all going to head to bed early tonight after our first day back to school this year.

Merry Christmas 2024

We had the best Christmas!  Fletcher said it might have been our best Christmas ever.  The kids were all healthy, we got lots of fun presents, had festive plans and we got to go to all of our Christmas gatherings.  That feels like a big accomplishment during a germy time of year.

It'll be hard to top our Christmas card this year!  We were so happy with it!  It was a highlight of our year moment so I'm glad it worked out for our card.  When we were at Notre Dame this summer, they had photographers stationed around campus for pictures.  We had this picture taken - our first every as a family of 5 in front of Touchdown Jesus and then it went missing for months!  They were supposed to email us a link to the photos and we never got it.  Kevin spent a lot of time trying to track down our pictures and then surprised me on my birthday with our missing pictures.  Hooray!

I did a lot less baking this year than last year, but we made time for our favorite treats.

Christmas Eve service at our church is always a highlight of our Christmas season.  I ran into lots of friends from school and Bible study friends that I haven't seen much this year.  We all got real candles except for Leo.  Smart decision again this year.

The weather was pretty yucky all week, but we made the most of it.  We celebrated Christmas Eve with Kevin's family.  Olive and I matched at her request - matching Christma nails and Christmas light tops.  I'll match her anytime!

21 years ago Kevin proposed on Christmas Eve!

Ready to open gifts!  They were so excited about their gift - camping gear, Squishmallows, Tonies box.

Then we zoomed home and got our Christmas ready once the kids went to bed.  We left cookies out for Santa, made reindeer food and got busy wrapping.

Christmas morning was so much fun! We didn't have any big gifts to assemble this year.  Just lots of remote control things and things that required tech support.  I made bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls and did a little baking while everyone played.

Leo was thrilled to get the missing parts to add a steering wheel to our swing set.  Plus Santa brought him the cyber truck he was hoping for and more.

Fletcher got a mix of practical camping gear and fun things like a 3D printing pen, but was most excited about his Santa gift of a PS5.

All the beauty items + Squishmallows made Olive smile.

So much fun!  Olive and Fletcher combined their wish list and agreed to ask for a PS5 to share.  It's been a hit so far.

Olive surprised me with a set of hamdmade gingerbread ornaments.  She'd been sneakily working on them in her room all week.  They look so cute on our tree.

Mr. Mittens had a great first Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas lunch at Nana's house.  She always has her house decorated so cute.

Then we headed to Christmas dinner with my family.  I brought a cheese board and my mom made a baked potato bar.  Yum!

The cousins were ready to open gifts.

Christmas 2024 was a good one!

I can't wait for another fun week together with a lot more time hanging out at home in our pjs.

December Highlights

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!  We had some fun highlights that I wanted to share with you before Christmas arrived.

1. Candy plates!  I have made a couple of these this season and the kids love them!  I add all the Christmas candy to my grocery pick up list and then make a yummy candy plate to take to parties.  There's something for everyone - peppermint, sour, sweet, wrapped and unwrapped.  This would be so fun to do for any holiday or kid gathering.

2. Road trip to Santa Claus!

We made the 45 minute drive to meet my parents in Santa Claus, IN for the day.  We hung out at their house, visited the Santa musuem, headed to get candy + Iced hot cocoa at Santa's candy castle and watched the birds and deer.  Fletcher got to help feed them with my dad.  A good day wa had by all of us with Mimi & Papaw.

3. Stocking stuffer exchange!  We did a fun activity with my class.  We asked anyone that wanted to participate to send in a small item for each of their classmates.  The families sent in the cutest things - sticker sets, painting kits, sticky hands, snowman making kits, hot chocolate, etc.  The kids were able to pass out the things they brought in and then each kid went home with a really generous treat bag of prizes at the end of our class Christmas party!

4. I felt SO loved and appreciated at Christmas time in my classroom!

5.The games for our class Christmas party were so fun!  I planned the party, parents donated the needed supplies/ingredients and then parents helped manage the party.

6. We had the best time cheering for our favorite teams - ND & IU in their playoff game on Friday night.  As soon as I mentioned hosting a party, Olive said she'd take care of the invitation.  Look at perfect it turned out!  She's a Canva master and I'm so thankful.

We all wore our ND gear and were excited to see how the game played out.

Kevin surprised me with a red moscato for IU that was delicious!

Everyone pitched in and helped me pull a meal of game day foods together.

Yum!

7. We've been enjoying all the fun holiday things this week.  The kid's couldn't wait to make this penguin hot chocolate.  He was so cute and they said the hot chocolate was yummy!

Now I'm off to wrap gifts, bake treats, go to our Christmas Eve service and family Christmas dinner tonight.  Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!