Do yall remember the pre-Instagram days where we would document all of life’s happenings via a blog? Well, I miss the writing, and the documenting that happens in this space so I’m bringing it back. Because I’ve been off social media since before the holidays, here’s a little update of our Christmas time happenings!

First off, if you’ve never spent a holiday season unplugged from social media – make a note NOW to do it next year. It truly is magical and leaves so much space to enjoy your own family and Christmas time traditions without being distracted or in comparison mode.

Also gives you lots of time to make homemade sugar cookies with your kids… thanks Jessica Garvin for the recipe!

Yall, it doesn’t have to be beautiful to be meaningful. Our cookies were the absolute furthest thing from Pinterest-worthy, but the memories we made making them are what count most!

Speaking of baking, on Christmas eve day we love to make a birthday cake for Jesus. We make it from a box, yall. Obviously, not fancy but it provides such a sweet opportunity to talk about why we celebrate Christmas and all about Jesus’ birth.

Speaking of Christmas Eve, I think we have a new tradition after church — bbq, beer, and birthday cake. Ha! This was the first year we had both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day just our little family, and so new memories and traditions were formed. Thanks to Coopers BBQ and shiner cheer!

Growing up, every so often on Christmas, all the gifts would be unwrapped and then my mom or dad would pull out one last surprise gift. It was truly always so magical, so this year we surprised the kids with tickets for “Santas Wonderland”! This is one of their favorite local activities, and they thought we weren’t going this year so a Christmas night tradition was born.

While this holiday season didn’t look much like the years past, it was still such a sweet time to slow down and really savor being together.

Here’s a list of a few more of our Christmas time / seasonal faves …..

Making homemade hot chocolate and driving around to look at lights.

Making and wrapping up yummy peppermint Christmas crunch to gift to neighbors, teachers, friends.  

Doing our advent readings as a family on Sundays.

Watching Christmas movies with the kids: some of our favorites this year were Elf, Home Alone 1&2, The Star, Polar Express, Charlie Brown Christmas, the Christmas story, and Miracle on 34th Street. 

No matter what we did, the best part was being together.

We loved all the opportunities we had as a family to serve people in our community, and to give out of our abundance. We were once the family struggling to buy our kids gifts for Christmas, so it’s the biggest blessing to get to pay it forward year after year.

The greatest gift of all this holiday, was having a newborn baby. My favorite song to listen to was “Mary did you know”… It made it so real for me, having a baby around Christmas to think about the mother of Jesus and the beauty of Jesus coming to us as a newborn baby. What a gift we have in Him!

I truly hope this season you were able to spend precious time with your loved ones! Merry Christmas!