Christmas + Covid

Wow it's been a busy few weeks! A Utah trip, covid, Christmas, New Years, Brielle's birthday, the beach, Jason's birthday... it feels like we've been going non-stop. But it's all been so good and I have a lot I want to share, so get ready! Before jumping into Christmas, I want to remember something that happened this past week. Emmett had his very first dentist appointment! That may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but as a mom it was a huge milestone for my little guy. I had the lowest expectations going into the appointment and fully expected Emmett to put up a fight, but I was wrong. He did amazing! He laid on the chair and listened to everything they told him to do while they brushed, polished, rinsed, and flossed his teeth. To say I was proud is an understatement. He's getting too big too fast. Stay my little toddler forever please!!

Now back to Christmas. I'm about 95% sure our entire family had covid the week before. Brielle and I had just come back from visiting my family in Utah and on our way home I got a text saying my grandma Syddall (who we stayed with the night before) had tested positive. My dad and mom got positive tests a few days later. We started showing symptoms shortly after, so yeah, we most likely had it. I lost my sense of smell/taste, had a little bit of a sore throat, and random headaches. Brielle and Emmett had runny noses for a week. Jason had a cough and felt a little off. Thankfully we all had it pretty mild. We were feeling almost back to normal by the time Christmas rolled around.

Alright, you know the drill.. way too many pictures ahead! One of my new years resolutions is to actually take less pictures. I want to try harder to live in the moment and not feel like I need to capture every moment. It's not the same watching the best parts of life through a lens or a screen. Not to mention I have almost eight thousand pictures and videos on my phone. That doesn't even include the tens of thousands of pictures I've taken with my camera. Seriously, the time it took me just to sort through these pictures is insane. I simply can't keep going at this rate. My laptop and phone storage can't take it! So here's to being more present and *hopefully* shorter blog posts in the future.

MY HEART.

My absolute favorite Christmas morning yet. This year Emmett started to understand the concept of Santa which was so fun! The first thing he said when he woke up was, "Santa came! Santa came!" He was sooo excited. Brielle was pretty thrilled too, even if her brother wanted to play with all her toys first haha. I'd say it was a successful first Christmas for our little lady! It's crazy to think that this time last year I was stressing out that she'd be a Christmas baby. Thanks for hanging in there a little longer girl!

After opening presents, most of the day was spent playing and relaxing in our jammies. Ryan and Karlie stopped by for a bit to give Emmett and Brielle a few more gifts. Those kids have got it goooood I tell ya! That night we ate a yummy dinner and played games at Ryan and Karlie's. I snuck away for a few minutes while we were there to video chat with the fam. It was good to catch up with the original Christmas crew ;)

This was my contribution that night. Oreo cake is a crowd favorite around here!

Speaking of Christmas goodies, this was the first year I did neighbor/friend gifts. I tried my hand at homemade peppermint patties and they did not disappoint! You can find the recipe here on my mom's blog. My favorite, favorite treat. I don't even want to know how many I ate. It's a good thing calories don't count during the holidays, right?

Along with the peppermint patties, I also made some back-of-the-bag chocolate chip cookies and threw in a bottle of my all-time favorite hand soap. Sweet, simple, and sugary.

We were on the receiving end as well. The Loomis's dropped off some yummy cake pops and the Hoggard's brought us some homemade cinnamon bread. MMMMMM. That loaf was gone in less than a day. So, so good!!

Dang it, now I'm hungry.

I hope everyone had a very, very Merry Christmas!!