1.// That’s the view from my in-laws back porch on Christmas Eve. Seeing my girls roam around out there is one of my favorite things! We spread out our Christmas celebrations over almost two weeks, and I love that temporary suspension of real life. And and – I got to see Newsies on Broadway and relive the greatest Disney movie ever – it was SO amazing! (Then my nephews sold us “papes” and Newsied around in their caps for the next few days, which was also pretty amazing.) And as un-Christmassy as the weather has been, I’m not sorry about 70-and-sunny days at the beach.
2.// Christmas cookie baking is a December necessity. Always, always on the list: gingersnaps. It’s not Christmas without ’em! Russian tea cookies are a close second. Lucky for me, my four-year-old was a total champ at rolling cookie dough balls, and it was really fun having her be able to helpfully help (last year her rolling skills made her kind of a liability). I like to add an experimental treat each year, and I decided to make this hot chocolate on a stick from Our Best Bites. If you follow me on Instagram, you already saw my epic fail at recreating them:
which I (kinda, sorta) salvaged by making these little hot chocolate twists:
The good news is, they still make really tasty hot chocolate. Appearances aren’t everything, people. :o)
3.// We spent the last few days of 2015 organizing our downstairs. Jay built a beautiful, wonderful, amazing, functional, enormous shelf in the laundry room (thereby totally legitimizing all the paper towels, cleaning supplies, and pantry overflow that wound up there anyway), and we converted a little under-the-stairs linen closet into “The Hideaway” for the girls. My four-year-old is delighting in moving in and putting things on all the shelves and my eighteen-month-old is delighting in taking them back down again. (It’s a peaceful and tranquil place, The Hideaway….) My dream is to go all Young House Love and make it super fun in there, but for now I’m just very excited to have a door to close on the downstairs toy stash!
4.// I was ready to take down the tree and put away the decorations, but I haven’t been able to let go of the Christmas cards yet. I’m the selfish kind of person who doesn’t send them out but I LOVE getting them!
Can’t wait to jump into some new recipes for 2016! <– does not look like a real date yet.
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Where are pics of The Hideaway?!?!