If I didn’t get around to writing this post on December 24th the least I can do is write it on January 24th! Not only has life been busy as usual, but most of my time spent writing these days is focused on my second blog, Pinch of Parsley! So if you’ve enjoyed reading the posts here, please come visit my new site and follow along there to keep up with the latest adventures in the kitchen of our brand new home <– there’s an entire series of posts on that new home I just casually mentioned too 🙂 Do you need a sneak peak/ preview for convincing?

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Now…let’s do a little time traveling back to Christmas! It came and went as fast as ever, but we had the best first Christmas in our new home we moved into in September! Our Christmas Eve was nice and quiet; we had our traditional family evening at home filled with dinner, Christmas Eve gifts, treats and holiday movies! I made candied pecans for the first time this year which is pretty dangerous, because now I know just how simple those tasty treats are to make! Hailey is 15 now (come again?), but I was so thrilled to still see that childlike excitement from her on Christmas Eve including her countdown to 7:00 when she’s allowed to open her gift; it’s so magical.

I typically have the same four components in her Christmas Eve gift every year: new PJs and slippers, something personalized, an activity for the evening and some yummy treats. Here’s the thing though – that gets more difficult the older she gets and at this point I’m just not sure she needs something else with her name on it and when it comes to the activity it feels like we have all the games, movies and coloring books out there! So I gave myself a break this year and just bought a few things I thought she’d really like. PJs and slippers are easy and this year I actually got them at American Eagle, technically Arie! The super cute pants have polar bears on them and Hailey loved the fuzzy open toed slippers! Getting them on cyber Monday deals after black Friday also made them really affordable! Rather than something personalized this year, I got her a pretty asymmetrical necklace from Stella & Dot.

These necklaces are delicately beautiful. I have a similar one that has a cross instead of an arrow and is gold instead of sterling silver. To my delight, Hailey really liked this too and appreciated something different in her box! The snacks are always pretty simple and the creme soda may just become a tradition every year, but I decided to try something new for her snack this time. The girl LOVES popcorn and I’ve seen pipcorn advertised plenty of times, including on Shark Tank, and decided it was the perfect opportunity to give it a try! We got a bag of sea salt as well as a bag of cheddar which was Hailey’s favorite. Overall review? Pretty yummy! I think the company is founded/owned by siblings which is pretty cool too. Don’t quote me on any of these loose facts, but do give pipcorn a try if you love the salty snack like us! It’s also fun to say. Pipcorn 🙂

Top 5 favorite things about Christmas day this year:

• Hailey getting up at a remarkable 8:00 AM!
• Christmas morning hot cocoa
• Listening to classic music on the record player Hailey got from Santa 😉
• Enjoying the coziest fireplace at my Grandma’s house
• The best quality time with family

I hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas too!! If you have any fun traditions with your family or friends I’d love to hear about them! I’ll leave you with Max’s Christmas photo from 2018. See you over at Pinch of Parsley 😉

As always, thanks for reading!!