Hello & Happy New Year! Welcome to our official Christmas recap. This year was so much fun. Just magic. Behind that magic though was the biggest pile of laundry to fold that I’ve ever had. Something had to give with the festivities, shopping, advent calendars, wrapping gifts, etc. and laundry certainly gave! 😅

Tuesday December 23rd was a big get everything done and finished up day! I couldn’t believe I actually had everything done in time. It was a lot of late nights- 1 AM and extra coffee, but I felt good going into this week!

We got a hilarious photo from preschool too- Quinn is adamant she doesn’t like movies, only “shows”, so when they put on a Christmas movie she turned around and sat the other direction. So there’s a sea of kids engrossed in this movie and then there’s Quinn just turned around looking at the wall 😂.

My friend Amy gave us some extra clothes they had. Here was one of the outfits!

That evening DJ took the reins on the Christmas plans since clearly it is not my forte. He chose to go to Glow with Stow, a display near City Hall.

This was a success!!

There were a lot of beautiful lights and Quinn and Tripp were all about it!

The morning of December 24th was wonderful! We blasted Christmas music, did some coloring and then got ready for the day.

That evening we went to Poppy and Sissy’s for our Christmas with them. It was so much fun. Quinn was being a ham and got us all laughing. At one point she was playing a toy trumpet and had us all spinning in circles. It looked like we were under some sort of spell 😂.

I failed at getting food photos but we had a delicious charcuterie board and dinner of ham, mac n cheese, green beans and roasted carrots. It was fantastic! It was a really wonderful evening.

Amy and Chris went to Japan this November and brought back some awesome finds! They even gifted us each one of these….. IYKYK! (Squid Game).

That evening we got ready for Santa! Quinn wanted to share her special mug with Santa 🥹. We also put out the cookies she made and carrots for the reindeer.

The kids went to bed lateee that night, and as a result we didn’t get finished up getting everything ready until close to 1 AM. But that was just par for the course for a few weeks there! It’s all so fun & exciting though.

Quinn’s “big” gift this year was this vanity. I found the vanity tools from Montessori mama.

Moose was our moral support.

Santa was here!

Quinn woke up hungry since she slept in so late so we peaked under the tree but she wanted to eat first. I made Immaculate brand cinnamon rolls, applegate sausage, a quiche (super easy recipe I only did green onion on one side), and a parfait spread with purely Elizabeth chocolate sea salt granola, yogurt and berries.

Time to get to it!

^ side note: this picture initially freaked me out because I couldn’t figure out who was in the bottom right corner. Then I realized it was the tail of the rocking horse haha!

Throughout December Quinn made little magnatile gifts and put her toy characters in them. She said they were for Jesus’s birthday and that we could open on Christmas 🥹❤️. It was the first thing she wanted to give us that morning before she even opened her own gifts. I love her giving heart and sweet spirit.

She wanted two things from Santa – a Muffin stuffy and Muffin and Socks characters for her Bluey dollhouse. He delivered!

Tripp was just happy to be there lol.

Mr. Moose just lounged on the couch through the whole thing.

How cool is this ribbon from Quinn’s preschool?

The rest of the day was spent in our PJs enjoying all the new gifts. Also, we pulled up an album from DJ’s phone of videos of me with the kids/videos of the kids I’d never seen before. I told him it was all I wanted for Christmas and he had saved them through the year. It was SO so special and we decided it would be an annual thing.

I am pretty thrilled to start my bread making journey!!!

We went on a walk but it was pretty chilly & Tripp refused to keep his gloves on. I went home and started on dinner while the rest of the gang finished up walking. I made the sheet pan feta, vegan sausage and root veggie tray I mentioned a few posts back!

Since Tripp is doing so well with dairy I used regular feta this time!

Quinn’s latest obsession is Barney so we let her watch a little after getting ready for bed. Moose cuddled up too 🥰.

Something I was pretty excited about to give Quinn is this artwork book. We took her art from this year and the art hanging on the wall and put it in this book. I did have to get new three rings since these ones broke, but once it was all put together it looked great! I love that she can color the front too if she wants.

Now we have a clean slate on her art wall for the new year! I think this is going to be a fun tradition to do every year- take the art down put it in a book and make room for the art to come!

This Christmas I was so filled with gratitude, reflection and pure joy. We had so much wonderful family time, Tripp is with us this year and Quinn was more excited and into the holiday than ever- so those are the biggies. But there was something else I realized. Christmas in the past or holidays in general used to be so triggering for me when I was in the thick of disordered eating/exercise. I was SO in my head about getting my workout in, what food would be offered/when, how I would look in pictures. I realized at the end of this season how none of that was even a thought on my mind…How I ate the cinnamon rolls without getting up at 5 AM to do a 10 mile run. How I was fully present with my kids not worrying or caring about how I might look in pictures. I am so grateful. Motherhood has changed me so much & it’s healed me in so many ways. I think it took this Christmas for me to truly see just how much growth I’ve had. It’s not perfect nor always easy- I still struggle at times, but on a major scale I look back at this holiday season with so much gratitude and praising God that I am no longer mentally beholden to something that I was controlled by for a long time.

December 26th Tripp was down for the count. He was pretty clingy on Christmas, but then wanted to sleep all day Friday. My poor boy.

He spiked a temp and then started getting a runny nose. DJ got it on Sunday which took him to the ER for chest tightness & difficulty breathing. Turns out it was influenza A. Quinn nor I caught it, and DJ and Tripp are getting better each day.

That evening we had meatballs over sourdough pasta with salad.

The morning of December 27th I made french toast for everyone. Just felt like one of those mornings!

We did take most Christmas decorations down that day since we were at home. But we threw a birthday party to Jesus too. I had wanted to do this and Christmas really snuck up on me- so I’m glad we could do it this day!

We laughed a bit how my cake turned out. I jokingly told Renee I was coming for her cakes 😂.

It tasted fine. Not great. Not bad. Fine. It did the trick lol.

We also made an ornament I’d been wanting to do with Tripp for his first Christmas. I realized all the cute little crafts daycare did with Quinn her first Christmas Tripp wouldn’t have since he’s not in daycare. I said to DJ, “I have to make sure to do the cute crafts! I’m the teacher now!” Quinn overheard me and said, “Mommy, you’re not a teacher!”. lol.

We also were a couple days behind but finished up our advent calendar!

Anyway, how was your Christmas? Hopefully you had fewer fails than I did 🤣. I’ll get it together for 2026, yeah?! 😅

I hope you have a wonderful New Year, friends!

Mackenzie 🎄❤️