Things I’m Loving Friday #496

The final few days before Christmas are here and we are feeling the madness in our house! We’re doing our best to couple downtime at home with the local holiday activities we love so much as well as time with friends and so far, for the one day of winter break we’ve had, it’s been a good one!

Our two little guys finished school on Tuesday and Chase was done on Wednesday so we kicked off winter break yesterday with a playdate with some of our closest friends and then made our way into the city for Light the Knights (more on that below).

The next few days will include lots of time in our Christmas pajamas, a trip to see lights at a local botanical garden with friends, church, a Christmas movie (Anyone seen Arthur Christmas? It’s on our radar but our kids aren’t the bravest with movies and I want to make sure it wouldn’t spook them) and, of course, Christmas! It’s almost here!

I will very likely be a little sparse with my blogging next week as we’ll be making our way to Florida after Christmas for family time before the new year but I’ll do my best to check in when I can. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and for my friends celebrating Christmas on Monday, I hope it’s the merriest one yet!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Light the Knights

Winter break kicked off on a great note when we arrived at Truist Field in the late afternoon for Light the Knights! We’ve attended Light the Knights before and loved walking around looking at the decorated trees, vignettes and pop-up shops but this was the first year we’ve been where tubing and ice skating were available on the baseball field!

Tubing was a huge hit and our weekday early arrival time meant lines for everything were thankfully minimal. Our family had a blast on the ice! It was actually all of our boys’ first time attempting ice skating which was all kinds of hilarious. Chase was all about it and progressed quickly and we did a lot of laps together while Ryan took Rhett and Ryder tubing again. I think it made quite an impression because Rhett came up to me this morning crying because he wanted to “go tubing again and again today.” I think we may have to sneak in a day trip to the mountains for a family snow tubing adventure this winter!

• Speedway Christmas

Ryan and I are opting for a “one night on, one night off” approach to holiday activities this week so we don’t run our family ragged. Two days before Light the Knights we took the boys to Speedway Christmas, one of their favorite holiday traditions in the Charlotte area. The Charlotte Motor Speedway offers a drive-through holiday lights display set to music and when I say it’s awesome I mean it. The music is upbeat and festive and our boys get a huge kick out of watching all of the coordinated holiday lights. It was busier than usual this year (likely because we went later in the season) so if you are local and haven’t been before my advice remains the same: Go early in the season and on a weekday or go after Christmas!

• Christmas Melty Bead Creations

After Thanksgiving, our boys had an idea. They wanted to make melty bead creations for friends and family as Christmas gifts this year. They’ve been hard at work for weeks and are now wrapping up their creations and giving them away. It’s been so fun to see them brainstorm the designs they wanted to make for each person and the reasons behind their selections. We transformed most of their creations into ornaments by leaving a little hole in the creation before ironing and then feeding a little string through the hole so it can hang on a Christmas tree!

• Boys’ Annual Christmas Ornaments

One of our family’s Christmas traditions we began a few years ago is gifting each of our boys an ornament that represents something they love or something that reminds us of them each year. It quickly became a tradition we all love and watching the boys excitedly remember the ornaments they received from prior years as we decorate the tree each year brings me so much joy. All of their ornaments this year have officially arrived and I cannot wait to give them to the boys on Christmas Eve! This year Rhett will be receiving a husky ornament to represent his favorite stuffed animal, a large husky dog he named “Suki.” Ryder’s ornament is a painting of Pepper because his love for our family dog is through the roof. Chase, forever our Creature Man, will be receiving a turtle ornament because his favorite thing to do this year was catch and release turtles at a local pond.

• Friday Flashbacks

My Mom’s Monkey Bread (aka the bread my mom serves ever Christmas morning that forever reminds me of childhood Christmases with my family)

Peppermint Ice Box Cake (If Oreos, whipped cream and peppermint sound like a dream to you, this is a must-make holiday dessert!)

Question of the Day

What is one thing you’re feeling especially grateful for this holiday season?