Christmas

Mama I see you, holding your new baby on his first Christmas. Amazed at how Christmas is different with your own sweet boy this year. Holding him close and treasuring these moments. Mama I see you, chasing your baby girl down the hall, hoping she doesn't knock over the tree. Watching her bow bob up and down as she wobbles across the floor. Mama I see you, full of gratitude for what your own mom did for you as a child at Christmas, understanding how hard she must have worked to make it look magical and effortless. Mama I see you, cooking and planning and decorating, getting out the ornaments, finding the recipes, and lighting the candles. Mama I see you, exhausted from...

I’m gonna let you in on a very well kept secret. Come in close, did you know we run Christmas traditions?!? Like us! You, me, and Cathy down the street! We are the ones that get to decide if our house is elf friendly, we buy the gifts, we run this thing! It took me longer than I care to admit to realize this. But now that I have, I’m jumping in head first! We’re shaking up Christmas in these parts! I’m putting my foot down, no more cookies! Alright, simmer down all you keyboard warriors! I’m not calling a freeze on Christmas altogether, just the cookies. You see, even though we make adorable & delicious sugar cookies as a business,...

I keep seeing posts about not giving toys for holidays. Instead, gifting experiences. Can I please tell you... I AM HERE FOR IT! Our house feels like it is bursting at the seams with toys when my children have just as much fun playing in a cardboard box. As much as I love the thought of experiences, I wasn’t really sure how to implement it in our family. Until now... I decided to make gift cards for my daughters and niece. The gift cards would be for things for us to go do with my niece - not just for her parents to do with her. For example, going to get donuts one morning, at-home pedicures, going bowling, baking cookies, going...

I happen to love Christmas movies, but this year’s holiday movie binge-watching has proven to be quite the challenge with an infant crawling around and sprouting new teeth every day. He can’t sit still and that means I’m roaming about the house cleaning up after him until the glorious nap time break. EXCEPT, well, I can’t watch movies then, either (you never know how loud Christmas cheer can be until you have an infant who’s a light sleeper), but what I can do is glance at my phone and decide whether or not I want to get lost in a book or fall into a Google rabbit hole (because, hey, cleaning creates noise). Recently, I chose the rabbit hole and landed...

I say it every year, "My child doesn't need any more toys." But you know what, I lied. Seeing my little two year old use her cute little imagination at her play kitchen, or playing mommy to her millions of dolls that she has scattered all around the house gives me so much joy. So hear me out, I will buy ALL THE TOYS that keep her imagination running wild. But what I will try (my hardest) not to buy are those annoying toys with all of those lights and sounds. I have shared that viral post twice, if not three times, that was something along the lines of "if you want to buy my kid a gift for Christmas,...