Christmas 2025

It's been a fun week, but I can't believe we are on the other side of Christmas! I absolutely loved having last week off & a few days of downtime before the holiday itself. The girls & I had fun baking - we make the same things every single year:

We didn't make these, but for the second year I ordered df/gf Christmas tree cakes from a specialty bakery in town & they are delicious:

I bought Sophie & Bryan the regular ones. In fact, Sophie specifically asked for this for her birthday. She asked if she could eat it for breakfast!

The girls also made mini gingerbread houses:

and reindeer food:

We stayed up late every night & watched Christmas movies and slept in every morning. It was heavenly! On Christmas Eve, the girls baked sugar cookies for Santa:

and then we went to our candlelight service at church:

Afterwards we headed to Nanny's house where we celebrated with the entire Dodson family. Thankfully it wasn't too late of a night so the girls could get ready for bed before Santa came:

Yep, the magic in this house is still going strong. You have to believe to receive! So, the girls ran outside to sprinkle reindeer food & then laid milk & cookies for Santa:

Looks like the girls had a good year & got everything they asked for:

Sophie really wanted a new vanity for her birthday since we re-did her room, so she was beyond excited when she came downstairs & saw it, along with her seashell chair:

Sadie really wanted a new hair tool, the Shark, which has multiple attachments to straighten, curl & blow-dry her hair:

Sophie LOVES to organize so she also got several clear containers, to organize all of the drawers in her new vanity:

Mom & Dad also got a new peloton! Long story, but we had a peloton delivered & installed the day before and we had snuck the girls out of the house so we were hoping it would be a family surprise, but the one they delivered was broken & wouldn't work so we had to send it back. Hopefully we will all be running on our new treadmill next week:

We all got Wakeland gear since Sadie starts high school next year:

The girls always have fun buying gifts for each other:

but Sophie's favorite part of the day was when we moved her vanity upstairs so she could organize it:

Eventually, we all cleaned up & drove to Bryan's parents' house for our next round of Christmas & dinner:

It was a fun week celebrating with our family of 4 & extended family also. I really do love the time at home when life slows down & we can just be together. Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours was!

Sophie's 12th Birthday

Last Wednesday, Sophie woke up on her birthday to a special surprise from our elf, Ellie:

Her birthday is the 17th so Ellie must have done this the night before - you know 16-17?! Close enough. She loved it at least!

Since we celebrated Sadie's party the weekend before, we celebrated Sophie's birthday this past weekend. This year, she turned 12 & her party was a little out of control..... she couldn't cut her guest list down so we told her to enjoy it this year because this would be the last. Ha! She wanted to invite her friends from church, her entire volleyball team, all of her older friends from elementary school & all of the newer friends she met at middle school this year:

We had all of the girls dropped off at our house & then Bryan arranged a bus to pick us all up. The bus ride might have been the best part of the party if you ask the girls?! He had a speaker & we let Sophie play DJ:

Thankfully I had Bryan to help me - I don't know we managed so many girls all afternoon. Ha!

We drove about an hour from our house to Fort Worth to Rooftop Cinema, with is an outdoor movie theater on top of the Worthington Hotel in downtown:

The weather looks beautiful, right? We lucked out because I booked this back in October & I had no idea if the weather would cooperate. I knew we would be ok if it was cold, I just didn't want it to rain. However, I didn't expect it to be this hot:

I saw on the news that night that it actually hit 82 degrees & it was December 20! Apparently, it was so hot, we broke a record. It was pretty sunny & bright when we first got there so the girls were hot & thirsty and then Sophie's BFF got stung by a wasp. Poor girl screamed right away & scared all of us because we didn't know what happened but thankfully she had a lot of friends to cheer her up:

Finally, we got everyone settled. They all started on the turf to stay out of the sun but as it shifted, they finally moved to the chairs. Bryan & I bought them all water & popcorn when we got there but Sophie had fun shopping before we went & she had picked out Christmas candy for all of them to enjoy:

Once the sun moved, it actually felt pretty nice out there:

Besides the movie, they had games, ping pong tables & all sorts of entertainment that kept them busy. But are you curious what movie we saw?

Home Alone - you know it! That's always a hit every Christmas & never gets old. After the movie, we loaded up the bus & took the party bus back home for the girls to be picked up. I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot managing that many girls, but Sophie was in heaven getting to celebrate with all of her friends:

Love celebrating both of my Christmas cuties!