Welcome to the Holiday Gift Guide for Grandparents! We are starting the season early over here at The Fairy Tale Family and we wanted to kick it off with our gift guides. If you tuned in for Blogmas 2018 (where I attempted to write a blog post for every single day of December - and I failed) then you will know that I LOVE CHOOSING GIFTS FOR PEOPLE. Seriously. It's my actual love language. I wanted to start with some of the most important people in our lives. My mother-in=law - Mammie[...]
The children have gone mad. We are two days out from sweet festive freedom and I hope to survive until that final bell on Friday at 2:00. Pray for me. To distract myself from this, let's walk through Christmas Eve Day in my life. I've talked about tradition in the past 19 days, so I wanted to show you how it's incorporated into my favorite day of the year! For me, Christmas is about the build up of the season in its entirety. I love Christmas Day, but it also can feel melancholy as everyth[...]
I love lists. All lists: to-do, check, grocery, clothing, planning, etc. I thrive on them and crossing things off is a feeling of success, even for the smallest task. Every year, I keep a Google Sheet for gift ideas, purchases, if they're wrapped, and cards; however, I tend to look at planning for this in November. NO MORE. I'm creating a new plan. I've mentioned before that giving gifts is my love language and I love to shop during the holiday season, BUT I often don't appropriately budget an[...]
I love to sleep. It's one of my absolute very favorite activities. I can literally never bore of it or get enough. I love naps in the daylight on the couch, late mornings in bed, and long stretches of uninterrupted REM snooze time. According to Mama Deb, it's always been this way. She had to wean me from naps so I could do a full day of school. When Caleigh was born, those first weeks of day and night being one in the same nearly made me regret becoming a parent. Three years later and I still fi[...]
As a parent, I am certain you look forward to the dreaded winter cold/flu/stomach bug as much as I do. Are you sensing my sarcasm? Good. If there is one thing that can throw my anxiety over the edge of somewhat-manageable to insane, it's my child having a fever. I don't know why these set off every alarm in my body, but they just do. I can't sleep or even relax when she's sick. I anticipate being up all night, so I stay up all night. Y'all, I am 100% aware of how crazy this sounds and is, but it[...]
For a handful of years, my family has heightened the holiday season with a casual Cookie Exchange Party. It's a fairly simple premise (she, who doesn't host it, says). Each participating family makes a dozen or so cookies of their choice and you leave with the same amount; however, the theory is you've exchanged your own with everyone else's options. My sister-in-law hosts this and she also includes feeding us lunch, no small task for 10+ people. This year, we added an ugly sweater component. O[...]
On the twelve day of Christmas, my elf gave to me, a list of festive activities! Today I bring to you twelve things you can and should do in the next two weeks before the big day arrives: On the first day of Christmas, we make real and delicious hot chocolate to savor by the tree. I don't mean Swiss Miss (I mean I love it, but let's get legit here.) I mean combinations of taste and complexity. Crack out your favorite holiday mug and the whipped cream! On the second day of Christmas, we s[...]
This is my first ever attempt at doing daily writing for public consumption. I've written in journals before and for classes in college, but never consistently EVERY single day and absolutely not for other people to read. I tend to do things whole hog and likely too intensely, but as someone who loves creative expression, I thought daily blogging about my favorite time of year would come easily. I'm almost halfway in and I've come to a screeching halt. I found myself Googling and Pinterest sear[...]
Happy Sunday, friends! What a festive, fun-filled weekend it's been for my family. Today's post is coming a little later than usual because of all of the time we've been spending together. I hope you've been able to soak up some time with your loved ones as well. If there is a secret weapon to being a mama, I'd say it's Pinterest. Pinterest holds a treasure trove of ideas ranging from the simple-do-now-achievable to intense-complex-failures. I've been the victim to some fairly epic Pinterest Fa[...]
Since we're approaching the weekend, I thought today's Blogmas should be about quality time with your person. Life is busy. We are overwhelmed, goal-oriented, work-driven humans who often don't stop or even pause frequently enough to appreciate the people in our days. The holidays are a time to just that - pause and breathe. It's something I look forward to every year. Before Marc and I had Caleigh, we did fabulous things. We dined at high quality, dimly lit restaurants at all hours of the nigh[...]