December is one of my favorite months of the entire year. There is so much to see and enjoy and reflect on and let’s face it — the twinkle lights don’t hurt! I’m currently sitting in my dark dining room at 4:34, surrounding by glittering trees and yet-to-be-wrapped gifts and sipping coffee from my new favorite mug. Doesn’t that sound amazing? No matter how busy we are and how stretched thin we could be, the magic of the season settles over everything and makes every mundane task seem worthwhile. I am so looking forward to spending two weeks at home with my girls and soaking up all that this season has to offer. We’re still only a few days into the month, but let’s chat about what’s going on so far, okay?
doing | Maybe I’ve covered that already. I’m trying not to do too many extra things this month, but that is hard. I sat down with my calendar yesterday and marked all of the most important moments for the next three weeks. I’m being very intentional about what we say yes to — I don’t want to look back in a month and regret that we were rushed and didn’t take the time to enjoy each other. If we’re talking specifics, I have a few shopping trips, a manicure refresh, a small town Christmas parade and a beautiful service at our church all circled on the calendar. I cannot wait.
enjoying | Sometimes I think maybe I should review the prompts before writing that intro paragraph. It always seems like I steal my own thunder. I’m enjoying how my girls seems to love each other more in December. They are so giddy about the elf and spend secret moments planning parent gifts that they forget to argue as much as usual. I’m enjoying my Christmas tree, hot water (praise God for handy husbands), new Rae Dunn coffee mugs and my favorite Christmas album (affiliate link).
cooking | We’re cooking most of the same paleo meals around here and everyone is still enjoying them. I made my Whole30 loaded potato soup over the weekend and it is so delicious! I’m also learning to modify kid food now that Sophie is gluten free. I need to give you a full update on her migraines and current status, but the short answer is she’s allergy free and we’re waiting on the results of her celiac test. In the meantime, we’re going completely gluten free at home, so that I can relax a little when we eat the occasional meal out. She’s been such a great sport and hasn’t gone hungry a single day, so far.
wrapping | I am so close to finishing up my Christmas shopping this year, but I still have tons of wrapping to do. The girls presents are wrapped (and Sophie stacked them haphazardly around the tree), but everything else is in a pile on my dining room table. I’ve bought tons of fun embellishments and tags from Target and I’ll be sharing a fun post next week with tons of ideas for decorating your gifts. Wrapping is one of my favorite things to do during the holidays, so I feel like I need to spread the love! If you’re looking for a quirky solution with a big sense of humor, try these modified song lyric tags from last year. This is still one of my favorite holiday posts ever!
playing | I’m going to project this prompt onto someone else, okay? After months of lessons, Sophie has finally fallen in love with her piano and everything seems to be coming together in her head. She’s been working on scales for most of the year, but last night she came home playing Joy to the World. She was so excited to play it for us (700 times, at least) and I’m glad to see her so excited about practice time!
Now who wants to talk about November? It’s time for my favorite post of the month: a numerical recap of everything we enjoyed and accomplished over the last 30 days!
As much as I have loved this format for this year’s infographics, I’m kind of looking forward to doing something different for 2017. Is there anything different (or the same!) that you would like to see? I didn’t read nearly as many books this month as I did in November. Despite the number, everything I did read was outstanding! I’m planning on a full recap this Thursday, so be sure to come back and visit. Although none of Sophie’s allergy tests produced a positive result, it was a day filled with pokes and prods. They did a panel of 56 pricks on her back and drew 8 vials of blood for the celiac test, as well as referring us to a pediatric gastro doctor. We haven’t quite figured out the source of her distress, but we’re eliminating things left and right! Thanksgiving was so much fun — it is always one of my very favorite days. I joked on Instagram that the only thing green was my plate itself. I ate all the yellow and brown things. I’ve learned so much about my relationship with food this year and I’m looking forward to getting back to a very strict regime after the holidays! We had a great time in Louisiana and I really enjoyed my second away game. We tailgated with friends, cheered very quietly and tried our best to avoid confrontation. Those LSU fans are just as spirited as we are! We took the girls to another concert (Sophie’s second and Ella’s third), picked up our fourteenth fraser fir (read about our only disastrous tree farm experience here), and celebrated my thirty-seventh birthday. November was so full!
Later today, I’ll be sharing a quick sponsored post on how to take better care of yourself. Also on tap for this week is my final gift guide for the season — a roundup of fun holiday gifts for the hippest of husbands, my November reads and our monthly Little Letter linkup is THIS FRIDAY! I hope to see you there!
