december is always chock full of all of the things. hazel’s birthday. school mayhem. christmas festivities. actual christmas. and then just general life chaos. here’s some details of that last line item….
first of all. we are back in the full swing of hazel’s basketball career. she’s playing for the wccc league again. i’m not sure she’s really loving it this time around, but her games are at reagan on saturdays, and there’s a lemonade stand setup, so she’s not hating all aspects of it.
despite some pretty frustrating setbacks with my raging plantar fasciitis and ongoing joint pain, i attempted to keep up the grind at the gym. it’s pretty discouraging. that’s putting it mildly. i have been experimenting with new photo poses, since i’m pretty sure the gym bros who actually use the posing room unironically might be tiring of my shenanigans. my titanic pose is a personal fave.
our fun road life (turned lifelong) friends, jenn and brandy, sent us the most generous christmas delivery. they are so great about spoiling my kids for all of the most random holidays and their birthdays, but they really overdid it with christmas. they have been stationary for a good part of 2025 to tend to some family stuff, so they have used it as an opportunity to work on some creative endeavors that are not conducive to camper living. specifically, they are churning out some seriously awesome pottery, and gave us first dibs at some mugs (for the girls, ike just got a crap ton of fancy gluten free treats). anyways. in a sad turn of events, my mug did not survive the usps. if you saw the box it arrived it, you would be surprised that anything survived at all. but, the girls’ mugs were unscathed and they loved them so much. and i get to pick a new one from their next batch. 🙂
every year, we have the same debate about going to see the tanglewood festival of lights. the usual talking points are: it costs too much, its the same thing year after year, the wait is like 17 hours, the kids never really seem to care. then some years, we suck it up and do it anyways, and then vow to never do it again. other years, we remember the vow, and skip out. this year, after the usual back and forth, we decided to drive around ws/nc instead, and hit up some private/personal light displays. we even enlisted our permitted teen driver and scored some night time driving hours for her. our final stop on the tour was the neighbor of one of our good pals. we were able to park in our friend’s drive and walk amongst the displays. the neighbors are western ny transplants, so there was a good bit of bills fandom in the mix, as there should be.
when i first started pulling photos for this post, i had like seven different pics of my morning coffee in the dark by the light of the christmas tree, but i determined that one would suffice. but. i would be remiss if i didn’t also show you this years decor upgrade. a few months ago, derek put up some quilt hangers above the mantle, but they only can fit a quilt that is 60-64″ wide, and less than 68″ long. the quilt that hangs there most of the year is the perfect size, and i thought i would have to make a new christmas quilt for the space if i wanted to switch it out for the season, but the ribbon candy bear paw i made a couple of years ago had perfect specs for the space. it also perfectly fits my decor genre. colorful chaos christmas.
OF COURSE josh allen leaping over things is still our tree topper. it’s been quite a rollercoaster of a year for the bills, which has helped me temper my expectations. when they are good, they are so very good. but when they lose, it’s hard to imagine a playoff run. but we still go all out for every game with our gear and buffalo foods. 🙂
i am aware that i had an entire separate post dedicated to christmas cookie decorating, but bear with me for a few pics of some non sugar cookie cookies. there were A LOT of double chocolate peppermint cookies. anna baked them for her biz. i made them for hazel’s teachers. i put them in my cookie gift plates. and. i ate about 128 of them. (and still threw a bunch out on january first). hazel helped me with way too many m&m cookies. and this year i brought back the very labor intensive turtle thumbprints, which look cool and taste good, but might not be worth the trouble. not when everyone just wants to eat the easy seven layer bars. also, derek made some candied(?) cranberries, which are as delicious as they are photogenic.
in the middle of january, with less than one month before we are set to start the nursing program, my fellow 2026 absn cohorts and i recieved an email with an enormous list of tasks to complete before the first day of classes. (most of them even sooner). with winter break looming, the cpr class options were few and far between (and far away), but i managed to snag one in a tall building in downtown wsnc, with a cool view of pilot mountain and this old church.
ruby is still ruby. she sleeps a LOT. and is very agreeable to manhandling.
we are so close to the end. so close. now for that part of my post where i just dump random photos of random happenings. here we go….
movie nights abound. we never end up watching all of the christmas movies we have planned. but always charlie brown. (and elf. and christmas vacation.)
basketball practive spectator selfie.
lets see here. a make shift protractor that i constructed at a tutoring session for a kiddo that sometimes forgets the essentials. and a little glimpse of anna’s room in the midst of winter break.
just before christmas, my friend victoria asked if we had any playmobil figurines that looked like her family that she could purchase from us. i invited her over to sort through all of our playmobil and take what she wanted. while she was here, i tried to help console her brand new (fifth) baby, to no avail. i think i’ve forgotten how. hazel asked for and got a sewing machine for christmas. i have overhauled my sewing room to fit her in. i’m not sure she’s all that interested. 🙂
nothing brings me greater joy than reclaiming my house after christmas. we enlisted (demanded/forced) the help of the kids this year and knocked it out pretty quickly. always sad to put jumping josh away. and then. in the dumbest of dumb news. i had to get a cortisone shot in my foot for the plantar fasciitis. and i’m in a boot. like. so. dumb. (i have spicier words to describe how i feel about it but i’ll save those for in person convos and not “forever on the internet”).
i’ll end december with this pic from new years eve. i let anna drive the jeep. it was a little touch and go at first, a slightly different feel from the outback, but she adjusted quickly and we all survived. me. ruby. hazel. and all of the cookies.
and that’s a wrap.
on december. and 2025. sigh.