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!

Teacher Gift Ideas

My class showered me with the sweetest Christmas gifts this year.  The kids were so proud to bring in their gifts and get a big hug.  I got some really thoughtful, unique gifts so I wanted to share them with you.  They'd work great for Valentine's Day or even end of the year gifts.

Personalized cookies, gifts, favorite candies, gift cards to my favorite stores, holiday scents, new cups... an amazing combo of all of my favorite things!  So, so sweet!

I loved this Christmas snackle box.

December was bonkers.  Extra bonkers in kindergarten.  So this felt like an amazingly generous way to end the month.  I really do have the best families.

Another version of the snackle box.  Two gift cards to two of my favorite spots and fancy chocolates. I can't wait to use this container for snacks or my lunch going forward.

I love a good simmer pot mix.  This smells so good on my stove over the weekend.  And it's one of the prettiest ones I've ever received.

Then I got fun splurge items like these Geometry towels.  I've always wanted to try them.  They are so soft and really beautiful.  They feel so much nicer than my regular kitchen towels.

My favorite thing of all was the parents who took the time to write me a thoughtful note with my gift.  To tell me all the reasons why their child was loving kindergarten.  I absolutely made my day to hear that their kids love coming to school every day, that they appreciate our joyful classroom and that their kindergarten experience is exactly what they hoped it would be.  I'm lucky to teach at such a fun place.

I hope you got a few new ideas for teacher birthdays, holidays or end of the year gifts!

Nutella Pastry Pinwheels

I have a new and improved Nutella Pastry Pinwheel recipe to share with you today!

Remember when I shared this - Nutella Bites

They were delicious, but I figured out a way to make them even better!  I took these to a carry in luncheon at school and they were gone so fast.  When you make them as a pinwheel, they stay fresher longer and extra nutella keeps them soft inside.  

Look at those delicious flaky layers + nutella swirl.  Amazing!

Ingredients:

2 pastry puff sheets

1 cup of Nutella for each sheet/ 2 cups total

4 T granulated sugar to coat

Powdered sugar to top

An extra thick layer of nutella across the whole pastry sheet.

Roll up tightly.

Coat the outside in granulated sugar.

Slice into one inch rolls.

Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

Let cool for 15 minutes and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

These were delicious warm out of the oven, but they were also fantastic the next day.  I sprinkled them with a fresh layer of powdered sugar before serving.

You'll have to give these a try!  I can't wait to make them another time or two over Christmas break.

Happy Friday + Christmas Break!

Happy Friday, friends!  I don't know about you, but somehow December has felt LONG and gone by so quickly at the same time!?  We have done a lot of fun things, but teaching and working has just felt like a lot.  I'm happy to recap the highlights of our week and check in with you today.

The best parts of our week were... definitely not:

van trouble.  Working to get that resolved.

scheduling life around one vehicle.  Asking for rides and coordinating to the max.

weird health issues.  Also working to get that resolved with some follow up appts.

But we did have some good times in the midst of a stressful week.

1. Teacher snackle box!  Look at this cute box! Chocolate chip cookies, Christmas gummies & the cutest little sugar cookies.  I loved it so much.

 

2. Junior high teachers (and any teachers!!) LOVE Amazon gift cards.  Olive had the idea to do a gift card for each of her teachers because junior high teachers don't get a lot of gifts.  She had the best time being Santa Olive passing out presents to her teachers.

3. Being without a car for a couple of days has its perks.  My dad chauffered me to an appointment, a breakfast date and work :)  On Christmas pj day at school.

4. Christmas parties!  We headed to a new spot downtown for a delicious night of pizza.  Kevin's work party was at Spankey's Una Pizza Downtown.  The pizza was so good!  I love a festive dinner + date night.

5. I've been working on my nutella pastry recipe!  Stay tuned for a new and improved recipe next week!

6. Our Christmas cards are done!  Mr. Mittens was a great supervisor.

7. Leo got invited to a super fun birthday party at Deep Blue.  It's a local indoor play place.  His buddy is in my class so it was really sweet to see them play together and visit with everyone.

I offered to help him with his card.  He refused any help and said he already knew what he was going to write.  Sweet guy!

8. I really do not enjoy waking up at 5:30am every school day, but these cuties are always so excited to see me.  It kind of makes me forget that it's dark out and I'd rather be sleeping.

9. Leo loves PEZ.  He's been setting up ellaborate scenes.  This is his Christmas town.

10. Our elves have been busy!  We had a ton of fun doing some Christmas baking.  And the kids loved the snowflake toilet paper set up.

11. Christmas presents!  My assistant and I worked so hard to make personalized, hand made Christmas gifts for our families.  This handprint art turned out beautifully and we had the kids make a couple of ornaments for their parents.  It was a lot of extra work, but I hope the families will treasure their keepsake gifts for years to come.

I hope you have a great weekend!  I'll check back in next week :)

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