Christmas Season 2019

Christmas Season! Here is a summary of all the fun things I did with family and friends to celebrate this wonderful season.

First, I decorated my house early on, to make sure I got the maximum amount of time to enjoy it. My Christmas decor isn't the traditional red and green, it's more retro and pastel, and I love it so much. To me it feels so clean and bright and fresh and magical and it transitions well into January for if I want to leave it up for a couple of weeks after Christmas, which I usually do.

This year, I had the fun addition of these adorable pictures of my mom meeting Santa throughout the years of her childhood. She had been cleaning out her house this past year and had several items she was going to get rid of unless one of us daughters claimed it. I immediately wanted these photos because they are just so cute, and they look so good with my pastel holiday decor. Also, my mom and I looked so similar when we were younger, these almost could be photos of me!

Dinah and Louis get so excited when the tree is up, they love lying underneath it and batting off all the ornaments from the lower branches. I learned early on that I would need to by all plastic ornaments ....

Our holiday happy place. Each of us with our own corner and comfy blanket.

The past couple of years, I have started off the holiday season by participating in Operation Christmas Child. This is such a fun and easy service project that goes such a long way. We pick out a shoebox size plastic container and then fill it with all sorts of items based on what age group and gender we picked.

This year I did it with mom, I chose to curate a box for a 5-9 year old boy

And mom curated a box for a 5-9 year old girl. We spent the afternoon at Target picking out items we thought would be fun and useful. We were given a list of basic things they may need like soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a towel, a brush etc. and a list of items that would be fun for them ranging from craft supplies to dolls to games.

Then we dropped off our boxes at one of the designated drop off locations, we paid a couple of extra dollars to get tracking on our boxes so we would be notified when they were sent out and to which country. Our two boxes got sent to children in Mexico.

It wouldn't be Christmas without attending the annual Vivaldi by Candlelight concert on the first weekend of December!

Beth and Reece love to go to brunch at Market Street Grill which is located right next to their building. They said it is extra amazing at Christmas since they deck out the restaurant with garlands and tons of poinsettias, so they invited me along one week so I could experience the magic.

Another thing they love about brunch here are the complimentary orange rolls, they lived up to the hype.

After brunch, we went back to their apartment and watched Christmas movies, decorated for Christmas and snuggled the kitties.

Rapunzel and Bethy working on the tree while I hold baby Monty.

My friend Alyssa is amazing at getting tickets to the Christmas Devotional and invited me to go with her and a few other friends. We had great seats, and a wonderful, spirit filled time.

During the holiday season I LIVE in these pajamas. They are my favorite pajamas of all time, and I save them for the holiday season. They are made of the softest fleece, and have the cutest cardinal pattern. I got another pair this year to have in rotation while this set is in the wash, they are from the same place (Walmart) but have a different pattern (red and green plaid), and while they are still soft and comfy, they don't live up to the original.

I was really excited about this fun holiday nails, it was fun to rock  the green instead of  the traditional red.

Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about this season, they make checking the mail feel like Christmas Day, everyday.

You know I am a sucker for a special holiday treat, throughout the season I tried out a few. All were adorable and all were delicious. I get especially excited about a peppermint holiday treat.

This is random, but also delightful. I spotted this sassy ornament while I was out Christmas shopping, and it's saying rings so true.

Another cute scene I saw while Christmas shopping. This was at the Salt and Honey Market on 9th and 9th in Salt Lake.

I got to babysit the Madison babies one evening. We decorated sugar cookies and watched the newest Grinch movie, which is the best of all the grinch movies. V had so much fun getting creative with her decorations.

My mom is the master at holiday themed table decor. She switched out her dining room table decorations a couple of times during the holiday season. This was her first one, during her Great Organizing Clean Out of 2019, she re-discovered a lot of fun things, one of which were these beautiful shell ornaments that I have such strong memories of from when I was growing up.

Each shell angel is a little bit different.

The rest of Mom and Dad's house was also decorated for Christmas and was so cozy. I love when they turn on the fire, I love their house so much.

Work is always suuuuuuuuuper busy during the holidays, since everyone is traveling to see their families. 

I go for a lot of walks in the snow and below freezing temps, thus my winter work attire always involves a big, fluffy parka.

Luci was at my house a lot during this holiday season!

She sat next to me on the bench while I played Christmas carols on the piano

She played in the snow in the backyard and always got covered in snowballs 

She won over the hearts of the Burtons and the rest of the family.

She watched Christmas movies with me

And she sometimes sat on my shoulder like a parrot

I also saw a lot of these cuties during the holidays.

I always got to visit Daisy and Phoebe super early in the morning, we were lucky enough to see absolutely gorgeous sunrises on a lot of our walks. I haven't edited these photos at all, the colors were so vibrant. I love when a sunrise is bright enough that it casts your entire surroundings in a beautiful pink hue.

As their main Christmas present, the cats got to lick chicken flavored baby food off a golden (plastic) spoon.

My sweet clients leave Christmas presents for me sometimes. It is so thoughtful of them to think of me!

Is it even Christmas if you didn't decorate a gingerbread house?

I discovered my new favorite decorated house in Alpine. It would be easy to sit and watch this dancing display for hours. It spans for about half a block and is synchronized to music.

The Johns side of the family always gets together for a holiday brunch at the Grand America. This was a lovely tradition started by Granna, and it has continued for so many years. Its a great way to stay in touch with all the cousins we don't get to see on a regular basis. 

Brian and I always sit together and chat about upcoming movies and his favorite musicals.

After brunch, our immediate family always takes a tour of the Christmas windows. This year, there was an adorable little mouse scene below the main window scene, showing what the mice do to get ready for Christmas.

In the middle of the window tour, there is always a massive gingerbread creation, it's different every year. This year they created a replica of the Grand Hotel itself!