Hello my sweet friends!
Oh my goodness, what a whirlwind the last few weeks have been! Tis’ the season, right?
Feeling festive, ready to soak in what is to come in this last month of 2025.
Each year feels different, for obvious reasons. This year I feel lighter, feeling the need to really deck the halls. This season is bringing all the merry, all the happy…because why not?
Y’all, seriously there are many things in our world at this moment that feel heavy.
This season, find the light and share it…we all need that warmth and joy.
To cry or to dance? I have told this story before, it is a core memory that keeps coming up in my life. During our wedding reception a guest came to hug me holding a glass of red wine. The bottom of the glass hit my shoulder in turn spilling some wine. I felt the wine drip on my hand as we left our embrace. That moment I knew it was on my gown. I didn’t react-I knew if I did that was it. That would be the story of the day.
I went to the rest room with a sorority sister to see the full extent of the spill. Yep. Top to bottom on my white silk shantung gown, a maroon spill. In that moment I made a choice. I smiled, and headed to the dance floor. What was I going to do? Spend the rest of the night in the bathroom crying about it? Miss out on all the fun we had planned for two years?
It is all perspective. Life happens, right? We seriously had our dream wedding, everything I could have asked for…one thing at the end of the reception happened. Placing focus on the joy over a stain is where I would rather function.
At the time I didn’t realize the impact this one event would have over and over on my life. It really has. When a hot mess happens, I pause and think “to cry or to dance”? In most cases I would rather dance…not missing out on life to cry in a bathroom over a stain.
That night I danced my heart out with my new husband, our family, and friends. A red wine stain down my dress marked that perfect summer evening.
FIND ALL MY FAVS HERE:
KODIAK PROTIEN WAFFLES-BUTTERMILK AND VANILLA
COACH BENNETT’S PODCAST-A MUST LISTEN FOR ALL RUNNERS
SOUTHERN CHARM-ANOTHER ONE OF MY GUILTY PLEASURES
WICKED FOR GOOD-IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YOU NEED TO
MOM LIFE WITH BIG KIDS
Finding time to connect is crazy with schedules etc…Tuck and I found a simple way to spend time together that we both really look forward to. Once a week we pick a local coffee shop to go to. He drives, being the passenger is wonderful! We each get a coffee/latte of our choice and we share a sweet treat. We sit, chat and connect with each other uninterrupted. This experience is priceless and something I am grateful for. At the end of our time in the shop we rate our java experience…atmosphere, coffee and sweet treat. Nothing we totally keep track of but a little something fun to add to our new little tradition.
Momming BIG KIDS is different is so many ways…this way is one of my favs. It is so important to me to know them as they grow, as they mature. It is also important to me for them to know me in ways they haven’t before. That they see me as more than their Mom. Having this coffee time to share ourselves-I wouldn’t change it for the world.
In the blink of an eye fall is complete…I packed up all the fall decor within 30 minutes and started hauling out the holly! There is a certain glow and buzz in the house now. Fall was warm and subtle…little bits and pieces decorating our main space. Christmas, is bright and loud. Each room getting cheer.
The warm browns, oranges and yellows are now replaced by sparkling reds, greens and golds. We are a warm white light family…all trees and outside lighting shine with an angelic glow. Everything then placed within the lights has it’s own show and is not completing with other colors.
Pulling out all the Christmas boxes is like finding a treasure chest every year…forgetting what we newly acquired the year before or what we have had for years is such a gift. I am one that decorates over days instead of an all in one. The creative in me needs time to step back, look, rearrange etc.
This is also of season of baking for me. Not so much everyday meal cooking but real deal holiday baking. I have cookie and mini bundt cake recipes I have used for 20 some years, we all have our favorites. I also have my Mom’s recipes that she used every Christmas. I have not attempted her famous poppy seed lemon cake but my sister has-which I absolutely love. The kitchen is a place of all the hustle and bustle during this month…lots of coming and going, cooking and cleaning and cooking again.
Growing up with a Mom that made the holidays magical has instilled in me how important that is. Our home was overflowing with merry and bright. It is easy to get caught up in matching what that was. I really don’t know how she did it all. I try to keep things as slow and peaceful as I can…creating the merry and bright with the magic of the season in the forefront of my mind.
INTO THE WEEK AHEAD
Friendships are everything. Friendships that become deep enough to become family and life lasting are precious. Keep them close and work hard to nurture them. In the week ahead text, call, email etc that friend or friends that feel like sunshine. Lift them up.
Start this week shining your light on that friend. May your light inspire their light to shine. We need each other in this world. You all know we do. In this giving season the most important gift we can give is ourselves to each other.
