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Christmas 2025/New Years 2026

Christmas gift wrapping shenanigans: Keeping Brynn company while she wraps all of our Christmas gifts.



Brynn and I couldn't help but peek at the 150 Famous Poems book we gave to Clara. So many good ones.


Getting into the holiday spirit at Courts Plus. Ha!

Christmas eve brunch.


Clara's gingerbread house contest strategy notes.

Contestants were allowed 20 minutes to shop for their houses at Wal-mart.


We left ourselves little time to get ready for the 3:00 Christmas eve service at our church. But, we made it and thankfully didn't have to sit in the overflow area in the chapel! It was a beautiful service.

We had bit more time in between church and when we planned to leave for Tessa's, so I mixed up my eggnog and we got the car packed.

Tessa's family hosted Christmas eve at their lake home.














We had a great mix of people to play a game of Mind the Gap.


Getting cookies ready for Santa.





Clara got Dana and me up around 7:30 and we watched her open her stocking. I think Dana and I must have opened ours at that time as well.











Brynn opened hers when she got up a few hours later. (Dana and I definitely went back to bed after Clara got us up.)






Christmas Day we had planned a quiet day at home for the four of us to celebrate together. I made some Chex Mix and Brynn put together a charcuterie spread for us to much on.






We were watching a bit of TV when we all got really tired. Our naps really delayed our timeline of plans, but when we finally woke up, we exchanged our gifts to and from one another.






We got Clara a custom swim jacket to keep her warm at swim practice and meets.


Clara got Dad a creeper for the garage.

I got a keypad for my laptop and a new pair of Nikes that I asked for and Dana surprised me with a walking pad for my work-from-home office desk. I was so excited for that.

After that, around 8:00 we finally got around to making our homemade pizzas.

And then watched Home Alone.

Then worked on the gingerbread houses...I think they actually started before we did the pizza and movie.










There was no time limit on how long you could spend working on your house, so I had to snap a pic for a time stamp of when Brynn finally finished. 

Thank you to everyone who voted...Brynn was our winner again this year. 


Friday night we decided to make some cupcakes for uncle John's birthday (which was December 30th) as they were coming to celebrate Christmas on Saturday.

Holly put together a delicious spread for us, featuring a pineapple Christmas tree. So cute.



Clara playing her Christmas songs for us on her keyboard.

Out on a walk.















Shots time with Christel's pickle moonshine that she received. John and I abstained.







Then Christel and Dana tried the pickles.







Brynn braided Clara's hair.





The girls and I had wanted to have a reading afternoon at Babb's Coffee House downtown, so we did that on Wednesday, I think it was.


Then Clara and I had tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra so we went out to eat at Kobe's before the show.







For New Year's Eve we had the Narlocks over and all successfully made it to midnight!









We had heard of the Spanish New  Year's tradition of eating 12 grapes underneath the table at midnight....each grape represents one month of the year for good luck. So the girls tried to get their grapes in for a good year ahead.





We had another wonderful holiday and break. We're all headed back to school and work on Monday!































































Comments

Anonymous said…
Luxe bathrobes 4lyfe! Y'all are beautiful, inside and out. Thanks again for having us, Happy New Year!
January 2, 2026 at 8:19 PM
Amanda Lamm said…
^ lol that comment belonged to me
January 2, 2026 at 8:22 PM
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