The blur of Christmas and New Year

We’re sharing a little recap of holiday adventures and joyous fun.

Hello friends! How are you doing? How is the week going? I hope you have a good time. It’s a festive blur here. Lots of cheese and eggnog, and I don’t know what day it is. I hope you’re enjoying some free time too!

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Some recent adventures:

We took our annual trip to the Princess to enjoy the Christmas events and lights. I hadn’t planned on going this year – I thought we might go to Sedona or Mount Lemmon instead – and the girls were crushed when they found out. I kind of forgot how much of a tradition this has become; This is our 5th year in a row! So I quickly booked a night and I’m so glad I did. I always officially feel like I’m in the holiday spirit when we’re at Princess.

We had an incredible dinner at Toro on property:

and I spent the rest of the evening skating on the ice, going for walks, roasting s’mores, and enjoying all the lights and music.

(favorite jeans are on sale here)

We got home and immediately got started on holiday baking. Usually I like to go ahead and freeze as much as possible and this year totally eluded me. I made two pies for my father’s house:

(a chocolate pecan bourbon and a chocolate meringue)

more peppermint bark:

and we made all the cookies for the holiday cookie trays and for the packages we make for neighbors each year.

We also created the giant Saran Wrap ball:

Christmas Eve was at my dad’s house and it was amazing as usual. They ordered PF. Chang’s (The Pilot and I had our first date at PF Chang’s! I had just met him at Starbucks and was afraid he might be a creeper and take me into dessert and murder me. My friend was on speed dial. Turns out he wasn’t a creeper and our date with dinner + Starbucks afterwards lasted five hours and was totally charming).

We opened presents with Dad’s side of the family, then came home for an *attempt* at an early bedtime for the kids (lol). I went to midnight mass solo, which has become an unintentional but beautiful tradition. I also went there alone last year and loved it.

Some photos from Christmas Day:

We had breakfast at home and as the Pilot had to leave around lunch time, we had dinner at Madre’s.

Discover the lobster tails grilled by Kyle!!!

We also ate steaks by ButcherBox (the best), asparagus, cheesy potatoes and birthday cake for baby Jesus.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching movies, naps, hiking, and starting to catch up on things at home. My goal is to start 2026 with clean closets!! I’m emptying out Liv’s entire room (pray for me) and getting ready because Maisey is having a little sister…this week! I will definitely report back soon 😉

I hope you have a wonderful week! I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap of the book!

xo

Gina