Also, before signing off for the last time in 2021, I wanted to say thank you for the millionth time for allowing me to share my life with you in this space. This blog and your comments, readership and support brings me so much joy and I never lose sight of the fact that the reason I am able to do something I love so much is because of every single one of you. Thank you! And Happy New Year!
Things I’m Loving Friday
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Cookie Decorating
The Tuesday before Christmas, we hosted a few of the boys’ friends for a Christmas cookie-decorating playdate! I took some shortcuts to ensure that planning everything out would feel as stress-free as possible (store-bought ready-to-bake cookies and icing!) and placed an assortment of sprinkles, edible eyes, shredded coconut, white chocolate chips and decorating supplies out for the kids to use on their sugar cookies. One of my last-minute additions that ended up being really useful was the inclusion of a little silicone cup for each kid. They poured various sprinkles into their individual cups so they had sprinkles right in front of them at all times and didn’t have to wait on other kids for sprinkles. (Can you tell sprinkles are king!?) It was cute to watch the kids get into the decorating fun but we had to laugh when the cookie decorating lasted all of 15 minutes of the nearly three-hours everyone spent at our house. Unstructured play will always reign supreme!
Then, on Christmas Eve, we kicked the cookie decorating up a notch with my go-to cut-out sugar cookie recipe and spent some time decorating cookies for our family and Santa!
Without the boys’ friends around to distract them, they got really into decorating this time around and we ended up with two dozen Christmas cookies… and a few Christmas squirrels because, according to Chase and Ryder, squirrel cookies were very necessary to include.
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Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens Holiday Lights
(Jacket / Plaid Shacket / Boots / Leggings / Bag (gifted) / Beanie was a Christmas Market find at Light the Knights)
After attending the holiday lights event at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden last year, we knew we needed to make it happen again this year and drove down to Belmont, North Carolina a couple of days before Christmas. The gardens are completely decked out with holiday lights and it’s a wonderful event for kids because it’s all outdoors and they can run around and just be kids. Our older boys love it and since Rhett loves nothing more than being set free to wander and exercise his Mr. Independent ways, it was a great activity for him, too. This event is quickly becoming a holiday staple for our family!
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Christmas
I counted my blessings a million times on Christmas morning. Even though Christmas is crazy and honestly a little exhausting during this phase of life, it truly does feel magical and I know I’m in the thick of living out a time of my life I’ll long to repeat again one day.
Our plans for Christmas Eve were just about as low key as they can be with three kids in the mix. We spent the day before Christmas driving around looking at Christmas lights, searching for Rudolph (Ryan hides a red light deep in our backyard and the boys go crazy for it), sprinkling reindeer food on the ground (oatmeal + glitter) and assembling Christmas gifts once the boys were in bed.
On Christmas morning, the big kids were up at the crack of dawn and were SO excited! We dug into homemade cinnamon rolls and had a relatively relaxed morning with my father-in-law as the boys opened presents.
We ended up making a very last-minute decision to bump up our travel plans to Florida and actually drove to Florida on Christmas! The boys were dying to get to Florida so we leaned into their enthusiasm and made the drive in record time thanks to absolutely NO traffic. Chase asked if we can drive to Florida every Christmas so any guilt I potentially had about spending a decent portion of Christmas in the car disappeared pretty quickly. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy Christmas dinner with my parents, sister and her family!
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Florida Fun
Ever since we arrived in Florida, we’ve been soaking up as much family time as possible. The weather has been phenomenal so we’ve also enjoyed our fair share of time outside. We’ve filled our days with visits to Tree Hill Nature Center and Celestial Farms (a local animal rescue farm we absolutely LOVED!) as well as a trip to the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, the Jacksonville Zoo and lots of beach time! It’s been a great blend of busy and relaxed with lots of sunshine sprinkled in the mix. We’ll be heading back to North Carolina tomorrow and are feeling extra grateful for the family time we’ve been able to enjoy over the boys’ winter break.
Question of the Day
What is one thing you are feeling grateful for heading into 2022?
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Looks like a fun week! Can you tell me where those jeans are from that you’re wearing with the rust colored tank? So cute!! I’ve been on the hunt for a pair just like that.
Happy New Year! I’ve followed your blog for years and I look to it as a source of positivity in my life. I have two small children and so much of your advice has been so helpful. Cheers to you.
Hi Maggie! It’s actually an Amazon find! I love it — the cut is great and it’s a lightweight woven sweater material. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3qH8HBT I ordered a size up!
Hi Julie! Happy new year for tomorrow (I’m in South Africa so ahead of you). I think Maggie was asking about your jeans xxx
Oops! That’s embarrassing! Haha! I clearly read fast on my phone and just saw rust color tank… the jeans are Old Navy!! Definitely size down! https://rstyle.me/cz-n/f4it74b3f5p also, they photograph not so great online but in person they look great & quite different from the online photos! If I only would have seen them online I’m sure I never would’ve purchased them but I tried them on in store and love them!
Hi Maggie! Just wanted to comment back because I realized you were asking about my jeans and not my tank. (So sorry for speed reading your comment and replying too fast the first time!!) I replied to Shelby above and just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss the jeans link! They are Old Navy!
My brother drove from Alabama to my house in Tennessee on Christmas Day and loved the lack of traffic.
Me personally, I’m grateful for all of the experiences I got to have in 2021, even with Covid still hanging around. And we have some things on the horizon for the next few months that have me excited (namely tickets to Mean Girls the musical next month).