Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Monday, December 29, 2025

Hello Monday ~ Christmas 2025

Good morning!  This is the week of recaps.  Today is last week's Christmas recap and tomorrow I will share my annual yearly recap.  I hope you all enjoyed your holiday!


Last week started with a full day of work on Monday.  I served dinner alongside of one of my favorites at the hospital.

Tuesday night I was alone, so I took myself to the movies by myself.  Tuesday is half price tickets at the movies here, so I went to see Wicked, For Good.  I cried during this as it is a show with lots of betrayal and hurt.
After the movie, I went by to join Jenn and her sons and friends at the local hangout place for a little bit.
When you need a hug!
This hang out place has such a cute exterior!

Apparently, You Tube does their own version of Wrapped and this was my result!

I finally wrapped gifts on Tuesday, so I had to get one picture of the tree with gifts under it.
I finally saw both of my girls on Christmas Eve late morning.  We hung out at home and then went to a Christmas Eve service at my church.  Afterwards, we went to my sister's house for breakfast food and a time with her crew and my parents.  We opened some gifts there.  My sister has lots of stockings for her kids and grandkids.
Every year, my brother-in-law has a tradition to buy the adults a scratch off bingo card.  It was so kind he included us this year and we had fun participating.
My girls with my dad and one of these 3 won a little bit!
Christmas morning wrapping paper for 2025
If you need a simple, delicious breakfast treat, this is it!
Christmas morning breakfast included these waffles, strawberries, donut holes and bacon.
After exchanging presents, we watched ELF and I worked a puzzle.  I had watched Christmas Vacation the night before.
We took a walk on the square.
I had this platter for us to snack from during the day, which was great.  The girls met their dad for about an hour and I met up with another friend at a Starbucks.  Isabella joined us later when Brook went to join her boyfriend and his family for the holiday.
Clearly, Christmas looks very different for us.  I keep reminding myself how different it would look anyway as my parents age, my girls are young adults now, and my sister's family looks different as it has grown.  I loved a low key Christmas with no where to go and no big meals to prepare.  Later that night, Isabella and I watched Emily in Paris and ate chips and dip and chicken nuggets. My brother and 2 of his kids flew into town Christmas night.  We picked up my niece and she spent the night with us.  Friday morning, we went to the cutest decorated Christmas coffee shop. It was fun to laugh with these 3.
I went to a nail salon to join my sister and sister-in-law and got a manicure with chrome.  I love it!  I think this could be my first manicure this year.
We went to my niece's house for a gathering with my family and it is always nice to be with my brother and sister at the same time.

Saturday was a lazy day for me.  I stayed at home and briefly saw my girls that day because they were with friends.  I had a hard moment later in the day with some news, but in my aloneness, I knew I was getting stronger.  Sometimes when hard things happen, I think not having someone with me helps me heal from it quicker because I have to do it alone.  I have sure had more time alone the past 3 years than I ever had in my life.  I am thankful to have the holiday in the past now and move on to a new year! I went to church Sunday and it was a low key day too. I am thankful to be off work this week with no major plans.

Happy Monday (I keep having to remind myself what day it is :))
 


Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Christmas Favorites

 Good morning!  I wanted to share a few of my Christmas favorites of media entertainment.  

Songs

O Holy Night

 -Josh Groban's version is my favorite, but I like most versions! This is my favorite.

"A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices."

Not much else sums up the Christmas season for me like that sentence.

Away in a Manger (3rd verse)

-In case you are wondering,

"Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay / Close by me forever, and love me, I pray" and "Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, / And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there". 

Breaking down each line of that verse, I just love.  Be near me Jesus.  Close by me and love me. Bless the children.  Fit me for Heaven to live there forever.  I just love each of these words and meaning.

You're Here

- by Francesca Battistelli

These next 3 are all fun ones by Gwen Stefani :)

You Make It Feel Like Christmas

My Gift is You

When I Was a Little Girl 

I also like these two classic songs by the country group Alabama

Tennessee Christmas

Christmas in Dixie


TV Shows

Brady Bunch Christmas

- I mean, Carol Brady singing O Come All Ye Faithful is something I think about every time I hear that song.

Charlie Brown Christmas

- The true story of Christmas as portrayed by Linus.

Frosty the Snowman

The Office (a Benihana Christmas)

Parks and Recreation Christmas episodes

I always love a regular show's Christmas episode!


Movies

(I am not including Hallmark/GAC/Netflix movies in this list).

ELF

The Holiday

Miracle on 34th Street

It's a Wonderful Life

Four Christmases

Christmas Vacation

The Nativity

- If you have read my blog for a few years, you may remember that this was a Christmas night tradition for our family.  So I have watched this at least 20 times!  I still usually get something new out of it and a few places always get me.  I will forever recommend this movie.  Since our world crumbled after my former spouse left us, we didn't watch it for the first time last year and probably won't this year.  Maybe in a few years I can watch it again, but probably at a different time during the season.  New traditions are happening each year.  Speaking of crumbling, crumbs remain, hurt remains, grief remains, but hope is stronger than all of that and I am leaning into new hopes and traditions.  

That took a turn, but I hope you have a great day and let me know of any Christmas music/tv/movies you would recommend for me!  I have a lot of Hallmark to catch up on and several on Netflix too.

Happy Tuesday friends!







Thursday, December 11, 2025

Dallas Christmas Homes

 Happy Thursday!  

I mentioned on Monday that I would be posting a tour of Christmas lights I looked at last Friday night while in Dallas. These homes below are in University and Highland Park.  The homes were all so beautiful and I loved seeing the white lights, the multi colored lights and I love an inflatable in front of these expensive home, ha!  There is one house that I have 3 pictures of and they had a live reindeer in front of their home!!  I saw carriage rides and trolley tours along the way as it was very crowded, but it was certainly a fun, free thing to do Friday night while in Dallas listening to Christmas music!  Also, the last house pictured is almost $14 million on Zillow!  Enjoy the pictures!




Friday Favorites ~ February 20, 2026

 Woo hoo!  Happy Friday friends! A favorite of mine from last week was spending a morning last weekend with my sister. We went to a bakery a...