to read

One of my favorite blogs that I follow is The House that Lars Built. She has the best Christmas crafts if you are looking for something to do while staying safely at home. The DIY Christmas Friendship Bracelets are perfect for homemade gifts for your kids to make.

to listen

I love all things Dolly – and this year she released a new holiday album – A Holly Dolly Christmas. Her duet with Jimmy Fallon is the best!

to play

Ok – this might be my favorite! A Hallmark Christmas Movie Drinking Game! You could even have a zoom watch party with your fellow Hallmark fans! (Meghan – load up on wine! lol)

to remember

For those of you that don’t get my weekly newsletter – I wanted to share with you the letter that I send out today:

Tonight I made dinner and then Eiley decided to make a desert – needless to say the kitchen BLEW up!  I told the kids to go to bed and selfishly I said that I would take care of it.  Comedy Central was airing the last few episodes of The Office.  The whole series is awesome, but nothing is better than the last few.

The very last line of the whole series is when Pam says “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that kind of the point?”  As many times as I have seen that episode it never rang more true than it did tonight. 

This year the holidays will be different – very different. Today it hit me how distant I feel from so many friends.  It is about this time of year that I would get together with the ladies that were my first group of friends when I moved to Boston. We were inseparable for years. But then came babies for some, moving for others, and even us crazy single ladies got married and settled down.  Next thing you knew we only saw each other now and again, but we could always count on our Christmas tea. Today it hit me just how much I will miss it.

My point is that this year a lot of the pomp and circumstance (love that phrase) is gone … but the ordinary parts of the holidays are still here. The little family traditions that seem simple, the laughs that take place when you’re all home, technical difficulties while trying to zoom with family and friends (yup that happened this week) and so much more.  

So I am trying to encourage my kids to remember not to focus on what is missing but what isn’t! We are so lucky, and while some traditions will take a year off, we can start new ones.  And I promise I will still leave my Grizwald lights up until March – even if I still haven’t put them up yet!

Don’t miss everything Holiday and have a great weekend!