Friends, I hope you had the sweetest Christmases, if you celebrated! We did celebrate and it was sweet.
Being the sole providers of Christmas magic, though, without family or church or friends to play supporting in-person roles, did leave me feeling a little unexpectedly nervous last week. My desire wasn’t for a perfect celebration, but more one that was satisfying and loving and hit the high notes of my own childhood. I think I was subconsciously afraid I was going to forget something, ha! (And forget something, I did – I didn’t realize until Christmas Eve that we do not own a copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas. Yikes! I recited it from my phone, which was unimpressive to my audience of two.)
One sweet moment that stands out? Drilling holes into the underside of our mantel on Christmas Eve afternoon for little cup hooks to hold our stockings. Since it was the first Christmas Eve we’d spent in our home, we’d never needed them before. It was our first year hanging our stockings by our chimney with care, but not the last!
Anyway, I wanted to take a minute and pop in to share our 2020 Christmas cards with you! Thanks to the postal service delays, it appears they are arriving to loved ones’ mailboxes about the same time as this blog post, even though I mailed them weeks ago, ha! So happy to share them with you loved ones, too.
It was hard to choose a greeting that felt appropriate for 2020, but I thought this one fit the bill. Our photo is a favorite from our Fourth of July backyard fun with Lisa and Christen.
As always, our card is from Minted. This particular design is by Alethea & Ruth, who I’ve chosen many times over for all sorts of projects (her lettering is perfection!). I am so grateful to my friends at Minted for gifting these to us – such a treat!
What a relief that the government is on HIS shoulder! That He is mighty, everlasting, and the prince of peace!
As always, we included our beloved Christmas newsletter! Loyal readers will recognize most of these notables from the last year of posts (and how about that tomato stat!!).
Planning to be back later this week with recaps of the books I read this year, my goals, and the year as a whole! Hope you love year-end reviews as much as I do :)
Did I cringe a bit typing in the title of this post? Yes, yes, I did. Not because this weird year hasn’t had its superlative moments for our family – it has – but because I worried it might feel insensitive to talk about the best parts of a year to readers who may have had a much harder go in 2020 than we have. If you’ve suffered the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or even just the painful loss of hopes or expectations, it might feel flippant to talk about favorite TV shows or little luxuries.
My hope, though, in writing this post is that it would help me to reframe the narrative of this hard year, focusing on the gifts and the good instead of the more obvious disappointments. After all…
As you read along and reflect on your own year, I hope my musings might help you to pick out your own glittering moments. In the comments, please share a few of your best memories, finds, and favorites from 2020, if you’d like. As always, I can’t wait to hear!
P.S. Like last year, I invited a few of my favorite blogging friends – Lisa / Stephanie / Nancy / Rhi – to join me. I think you will love reading their reflections, too!
Best adventure/travel/trip: Our detour to the Berkshires (en route to Maine) stands out. Situated in early July, it was our first big adventure after quarantine, and because we’d never been there before, the whole experience felt shiny and new. I have the sweetest memories of sunset takeout, paddling in the warm water with June, and cozy post-shower snuggles with the kids in the big bed, warm summer air floating through the window.
Best TV show: The final season of Homeland, which aired in the thick of quarantine and gave us something to look forward to in those long weeks. Also The Last Dance. I’m as surprised as you, ha!
Best album or song: “Never See the End” captured my heart in a big way when I discovered Jess Ray’s music for the first time after oh, only a decade of being aware it existed.
Best follow on Instagram: As you know, I follow very few people, and even fewer that I don’t know in real life. But this year, I added a few “strangers” I have particularly enjoyed: Shakira, who shares my love for making everyday magic for her family; Alice, who shoots it straight with practical and inspiring life/mom/work advice; and Ralphie, who’s ready with a boost of encouragement to be the mama I desire to be whenever I sign on.
Best kiddo milestone: It’s funny – last year, I listed Shep’s growing communication abilities and the attendant changes in his personality as the best kiddo milestone of 2019 – and this year, I’m going to list the exact same thing! His language has completely exploded in the second half of this year, and we are seeing the sweetest, most cheerful and delightful side of him these days. So grateful!
Best faith grower: It has been a tumultuous year for most e-commerce companies, and Cultivate is no different. Through the ups and downs, though, we have seen God deliver in the most extravagant, clear, and loving ways – and gotten to praise Him for it along the way. I am very grateful to Lara for leading us so faithfully and well!
Best trend you tried: In January, we bought a Peloton. Far from a trend for our family, this is the first time since high school I’ve stuck with a regular exercise rhythm – and the first time I’ve ever incorporated strength training into my routine. What a year to get one – I’m so grateful!
Best beauty purchase: Never did I ever think I’d list a Beautycounter product as a favorite, but here we are: my first ever BC product turned out to be a game changer! I use Skin Twin in Light 210 and it is a dream – light but effective coverage, which goes on really smoothly.
Best habit you created: In January, I made a number of cold turkey changes to my Instagram usage, including checking my public account just once a day, quitting the Explore tab, and muting or unfollowing people who left me feeling icky. They’re all still going strong, and I am much happier for it.
Favorite blog post written: This post on banned phrases as well as this one on my Dad and parenting stick out from the year. Also this one I wrote on our 15th dativersary!
Best life or mom hack: Did you know that the wooden containers Melissa & Doug toys (such as this) come in make excellent drawer organizers? Turns out they do.
Best mama moment: There are so many, but I’ll go with watching June soar on her big-kid bike!
Best home improvement: Our upstairs bathroom refresh has been such a fun upgrade – I smile every time I walk past it! Full reveal to come soon, but you can see the plans here.
Best little luxury you’ve enjoyed: In the height of the pandemic, I learned the beauty of taking ordinary days off (instead of saving them all for holidays, travel, or family visits). Whether tackling a project around the house or spending one on one time with a kiddo, these were some of the sweetest days in 2020, and I will definitely be setting aside a few days for them in my leave calculations going forward!
As always, I’m ending the year so grateful for the delights, big and small, that filled our year. I’ll be sharing more in my year in review post coming up soon, but in the meantime, please do share: what are some of your “bests” from 2020? Can’t wait to hear!
December tends to be a bit of a clean-up month around here, as I hustle to share in the same calendar year anything of note that hasn’t quite made it to the blog! As such, I’ll occasionally serve up posts that are a bit out of season – but we’ll just consider them inspiration for the seasons ahead :) In this spirit, today I’m sharing a few photos and stories from our eighth annual family camping trip with the Rays. Hold onto your boots – it was a cold and wet one!
For our eighth year, we returned to Blue Bear Mountain Camp, outside of Boone, North Carolina. As always, our car was absolutely stuffed.
This was our third trip to Blue Bear, and it never disappoints – it’s a lovely campsite, with friendly people, and decent bathroom facilities (ha!). Sadly, we had to postpone from our original weekend due to weather, and we did not get our top choice campsites upon rescheduling. The sites were actually pretty inconvenient, especially for families with small children – down a steep hill from the cars and bathrooms, and with a fairly steep (though wooded) drop-off on the other side. But we made the best of it!
We arrived on Friday afternoon in gray chill, which eventually progressed into mist (the photos of our site were all taken the next morning!). The grass was already wet from rain earlier in the day, which made hauling in our gear tricky and resulted in wet feet almost immediately. Thankfully, John and I were well equipped thanks to his excellent suggestion to wear our Bean boots, but for some reason we didn’t extend that logic to our kiddos, so they quickly were complaining of cold, wet feet – not pleasant, and I don’t blame them one bit! In fact, I felt terrible we didn’t think to bring their rain boots – total parent fail.
All was not lost, though! We had yummy beef stew for dinner that we warmed up over the camp stove, a crackling fire for s’mores, and a neat tarp covering rigged up by John and Will (that took advantage of our strange campsite!) to keep the rain off. And once everyone was in jams and dry socks in the tent, all was warm and cozy.
And the next morning, we woke up to glorious sun!! After breakfast around the campfire, we trundled off to Julian Price Memorial Park, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, for our big hike of the weekend. Though VERY muddy at times, everyone seemed to enjoy it, and it afforded plenty of rock-throwing and snack-eating opportunities. We didn’t make it the full distance of our planned hike, but still called it a success since no one fell in the water or face-planted in the mud.
We tucked into our traditional dinner of hot dogs over the fire and all the fixings (including, of course, s’mores) that evening. Then it was a warm breakfast in the morning, packing up the campsites, and lots of hugs goodbye as we headed back to Raleigh. On the way, our family stopped in Blowing Rock for lunch (which I’d highly recommend – they have a really fun new playground in the center of town!).
Friends, you know I’m always going to shoot it to you straight when it comes to camping, and I have to say I think this was our family’s toughest year so far (I think last year holds that title for the Rays). Friday’s weather was dispiriting (our first-ever precipitation on a camping trip!), I did really feel bad about the kids’ wet feet situation, the mud and terrain of our specific campsites made it hard for the kids to roam freely back and forth, and we missed one night of campfire conversation due to grown-ups who were just too tired to stay up after the kids went to bed.
Am I glad we went? Of course! I never considered not going, and never once wished we were at home while we were away. The kids seemed to have a fantastic time. But, though there were many sweet moments to be had (building fairy houses! yummy food! good conversation! a beautiful hike!), 2020 will not go down in the books as my favorite camping trip of all time. Which, honestly, seems entirely on brand for 2020 :) And you know what? That’s okay – because it means we’re stacking this year up against some pretty amazing past experiences, and every year can’t be the absolute best.
With kids aged 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 in tow (yes, really!), we are banking on the fact that it can pretty much only get easier from here. We’ll pray for better weather and our first choice of campsite in 2021! :)
P.S. If you want to hear more about our experiences camping with kids (and our best advice!), be sure to listen to my episode of the Work & Play podcast!
I find the divergence around stocking traditions to be fascinating. Take, for example, the stocking itself. My family uses ones that are hand-knit by a family member – the same ones, year after year. The first time I realized that some people buy new stockings every year, I about lost my mind – it just did not compute. Or that a family keeps the same stockings, but that they’re not assigned to any one person, and which stocking is filled for whom changes from year to year. WHAT.
To be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either of those scenarios – just that they were so outside the realm of my experience that they were hard for me to grasp, ha!
And then there’s what goes in the stockings. My family’s traditions include small trinkets, candy, and basic toiletries (new toothbrush, sunscreen, etc.). Other family traditions I’ve encountered over the years have been as far apart on the spectrum as socks and fruit… and a designer bracelet.
Finally, there’s the opening: free-for-all? One at a time? First thing in the morning? Final event of the day?
Whatever your stockings look like, whenever you open them, I hope you find a few things on this list to help fill them! (I’ve mostly linked to Amazon here, but this is an instance where I love to pick up little treasures throughout the year — a great opportunity to shop small and local.)
Plus we always include snacks and sweets! June specifically wants a candy cane this year (which I NEVER would have chosen on my own, so I’m glad she mentioned it, ha!). Whatever you choose, I hope you enjoy creating a little Christmas magic at the end of this month – one of the most magical nights as a parent, too, I think :)
