The Christmas and New Year’s blur

Sharing a little recap of holiday adventures and holly jolly fun.

Hi friends! How are you? How’s the week going? I hope that you’re having a great one. It’s been a festive blur around here. Full of cheese and egg nog, and unsure of what day it is. I hope you’re enjoying some down time, too!

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Some adventures from lately:

We had our annual trip to the Princess to enjoy the Christmas-y events and lights. I didn’t plan on going this year – I figured we could go to Sedona or Mt. Lemmon instead – and the girls were crushed when they found out. I kind of forgot how much of a tradition it’s become; this is our 5th year in a row! So, I quickly booked a night, and I’m so so glad we did. I always officially feel like I’m in the holiday spirit when we’re at the Princess.

We had an amazing dinner at Toro on property:

and spent the rest of the evening ice skating, riding rides, roasting s’mores, and enjoying all of the lights and music.

(fave jeans are on sale here)

We came home where we instantly jumped into holiday baking. Usually I like to get ahead and freeze as much as possible and this year totally got away from me. I made two pies for my dad’s house:

(a chocolate pecan bourbon and a chocolate meringue)

more peppermint bark:

and we baked all of the cookies for holiday cookie trays and for the packages we make for the neighbors each year.

We also put together the giant Saran wrap ball:

Christmas Eve was at my dad’s house and it was amazing as usual. They ordered PF. Chang’s (the Pilot and I had our first date at PF Chang’s! I had just met him at Starbucks and was worried that he might be a creeper and take me into the dessert and murder me. My friend was on speed dial. Turns out he wasn’t a creeper and our date of dinner + Starbucks afterwards was five hours long and totally lovely).

We opened gifts with dad’s side of the fam and then came home for an *attempted* early bedtime for the kids (lol). I went to midnight mass solo which has become an unintentional but beautiful tradition. I also went last year by myself and loved it.

Some pics from Christmas Day:

We had breakfast at our house and since the Pilot had to leave around lunchtime, we had dinner at madre’s house.

Check out the lobster tails that Kyle grilled!!!

We also had steaks from ButcherBox (the best), asparagus, cheesy potatoes, and birthday cake for baby Jesus.

The rest of the weekend has been movies, naps, hikes, and starting to catch up on things around the house. My goal is to start 2026 with clean closets!! I’m in the process of emptying Liv’s entire room (pray for meeee) and prepping because Maisey is getting a baby sister… this week! I will definitely report back soon 😉

Hope you’re having a wonderful week! I’ll be back tomorrow with a book recap!

xo

Gina