Happy Friday! I cannot believe it is the last Friday of 2024! This has been a great year for my family and the blog! I am not quite ready to recap or look back at 2024, so I am sharing my favorites from the week. It was a great week and I have a bunch of favorites!

Favorite 1: WINTER BREAK!! I have been taking advantage of every single minute of our winter break. When the final bus pulled away last Friday, I switched into break mode and it feels so good. I have been productive, relaxed, slept in, stayed up late, and enjoyed every minute! It was so nice to be off work for four full days before Christmas.

Favorite 2: CHRISTMAS EVE!! I love our Christmas Eve traditions. We spend the morning with Jeff’s parents and siblings. The six cousins have so much fun together! The adults have a great time together too! We have a delicious breakfast, open presents, play a game, and enjoy each other’s company. This year my mother-in-law made bacon, egg, and cheese sliders. They were delicious! It was nice that they could be prepared ahead of time and then popped in the oven while everyone was there.

After we get home, I put our rib roast in the oven and we head to church. I love that church service because many of our friends are there and my students from school, too. I do sit and and worry the whole way through mass that the oven will turn off or the roast will over cook. Great news, it didn’t!

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner – rib roast, potatoes, and brocolli. We exchanged ornaments and pajamas. Everyone opened their Jolabokaflod book. I’ll share those next week.

Jeff decided that I earned this ornament after weekly swim meets this month.

Favorite 3: CHRISTMAS DAY! The kids “slept in” a bit on Christmas morning and we didn’t get started opening presents until after 8 o’clock. We took it slow had a wonderful morning. The biggest laugh of the morning came from Luke. We watched the SNL skit about the mom and the robe a few times before Christmas. He guessed “I got a robe” as he opened most of his presents. His last present to open was actually a robe, but he guessed that it was a word scramble for an experience or something. I started laughing because I knew what it was. He assumed it was because he guessed right, but burst out laughing when he actually opened a robe. He was pretty pumped to get his robe!

Jeff’s parents came over on Christmas evening. We played close the box and watched football. It was a relaxing way to end the evening. I ended up falling asleep on the couch after they left, which is one of my favorite things to do!

Favorite 4: PUZZLE! Last year and this year we got an advent calendar puzzle. They are a fun way to count down the days to Christmas. They have a little box for each day and you complete the puzzle on December 24th.

Favorite 5: READING! I have been reading a bunch this week. I finished two Christmas books and I am about halfway through my third one this week.

Favorite 6: WALKING! I am still enjoying my Christmas lights walks after dark. I was excited to get a weighted vest for Christmas. I’ve only walked with it twice so far but I can feel it. As I walked around with my weighted vest and fanny pack, I felt oh so 40’s!

Favorite 7: LEGOS! Luke loves building Legos and I love that he loves it. He’s been building all over the house, but this seems to be his favorite spot this week. Right at the bottom of the stairs, what could go wrong…

Favorite 8: GOLF! Jack got a speed stick for Christmas and headed out to get a little work in. He’s playing golf today and is so happy to be out there!

Hello Monday

This was a great week and I loved so much of our Christmas, but I feel this hard sometimes.

We have a mix of relaxing and things to do until our break is over on Thursday. My parents went to my sister’s for Christmas so we’ll see them this week. I have a list of little things I want to do around the house. I’ll be back on Monday for Hello Monday and I hope you’ll join Holly and me. Have a great weekend full of sunshine and books!