Happy last Monday of 2021, friends. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas weekend. Ours was filled with family, food, and lots of laughter...and I didn't take many pictures at all.

We spent Christmas Eve with my husband's parents and brother's family. They have two boys, one of whom is Alexis's age, so there was a lot of giggling. We actually all dressed to match, but didn't get a picture until we got back home.

We spent Christmas morning at home, opening presents. Santa brought Alexis a new bicycle with no training wheels. She wasn't thrilled, but once we convinced her that she's been balancing without the help of the training wheels on her old bike, she gave it a shot and grew some confidence. We're still working on starting and stopping, but she's not far from having those skills down pat. I did get a video of her first ride, but I can't figure out how to get it to upload here.

She also got a ton of the Rainbow High dolls, which are her current obsession. I think she's got 10 total now. Plus, some modeling clay, Polly Pockets, Lego Friends, a gymnastics Barbie, some games, new books, and a beanbag chair.

We had our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and bacon, with some grits and eggs added in. Then we finally put together our gingerbread sleigh. It was not an easy project, despite what the box said!

We spent the afternoon with my parents, Granny, and one of my brothers. Sadly, my sister-in-law had a death in her family, so she and my other brother were not there.

I got quite a few of the things on my Christmas list - mug warmer for my desk (using it as I write this!), Pioneer Woman serving bowls, book seat (best. gift. ever.), and black Converse - as well as few things that were not - a beautiful giraffe necklace, lighted makeup mirror, selfie stick/tripod, and some faux trees to go outside my front door, to name a few.

Chris came out pretty well, too. He got the new tools that he wanted, plus a weighted blanket to go on our bed. It took a bit of getting used to, but I do like the feeling of being hugged all night long without the body heat.

So, all-in-all, a good Christmas. This week, I'll be taking it as easy as possible. We're slowly putting the house back together, although you might not be able to tell it by the amount of boxes waiting to go by the road. We always host New Year's lunch, so everything will get straightened out by then, for sure.

The big project, for me at least, was getting Alexis's room organized. Who knew she actually had a floor in there?!

Anyway, I've got some stuff to do for the magazine's website, and a few posts to schedule for this week. I'm doing my annual Best Of posts this week, so definitely check back for those!