Snow!

After 3 years of now snow, we finally had snow in 2025! It wasn’t much but it was enough to enjoy. Our neighbor friends came over to sled down our hill and it was so fun seeing the kids enjoy the snow together. It was also Sookie’s first snow. She wasn’t really sure what to think about it but had fun playing with the kids.

The End of an Era

Sadly, I heard that American Girl was closing its store at Southpark. It felt like the end of an era of being able to take the girls to that store. So, I reached out to a good friend to see if she and her daughter wanted to join Zoe and I for one last trip. We had such a fun girls’ day shopping and saying goodbye to this incredible store. Zoe still says she misses it and keeps asking if we can go to the one in NYC…maybe one day we can make it up there.

Christmas 2024

This Christmas was very different than Christmas 2023 when we celebrated early because of DJ’s surgery. There were a lot of mixed emotions this year as the memories of the previous year kept surfacing. But, we were so grateful to be where we are now instead of the previous year. All the anniversaries of the past year hit hard. But, we are so thankful for how well God has sustained DJ and all of us through this past year. It was still different this year because of chemo and the side effects of that but we saw the light at the end of the tunnel with treatments too.

We enjoyed setting up our Christmas tree together again this year. I do still miss cutting down a tree but I am really enjoying the ease of the pre-lit tree! The girls didn’t really want their pictures taken (as usual) but I tried to snag some anyways.

We spent Christmas day at our house as usual. The girls were excited to open their gifts and spend the day together. We stuck with our traditional gift categories of something you need, something to read and something you want. Thanks to Facebook, we found a great deal on a gymnastics bar and beam for Zoe! We watched Charlie Brown Christmas and a couple other Christmas specials. We enjoyed our annual big breakfast and gingerbread cookies. It was a sweet day celebrating Jesus’ birthday as a family.

A few days after Christmas, we celebrated with my side of the family. Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the girls with Piper or my mom. But, we had a great day with them. It was so nice being able to hang out for the day after not seeing them since they had moved back to Florida.

A few days later, we celebrated with DJ’s side of the family. The kids all had fun playing together and then really enjoyed going to see the Christmas lights at Hollywild and the animals. The bunnies were a hit with the kids!

We are so thankful this Christmas looked very different than last year! And we are thankful for the time we had to spend with our families.

White Christmas

DJ and I had a fun day date after an oncology appointment where we were able to go the the Upcountry History Museum for their White Christmas display. They had actual costumes (and some recreations), set pieces (also some recreations) and memorabilia from White Christmas, our 2nd favorite Christmas movie (right after It’s A Wonderful Life). It was so fun to see pieces of this classic in person.

Festival of Trees

Zoe and I celebrated the start of Christmas break with a trip downtown to see the Festival of Trees and search for the Dance Without Limits tree to see her ornament. It was a tradition we missed last year so we were excited to be able to get back this year. Zoe loved finding her tree and seeing all the other fun decorated trees. And, we found our sweet little friend Willa on the tree for a ministry that supports families of kids with cancer. Sweet Willa was diagnosed with cancer at just a few weeks old and we are so thankful that she remains cancer free now. Zoe made sure to take a picture with Willa’s picture to celebrate with her!

Zoe’s Christmas Recital 2024

Zoe’s Acro 3 Christmas Recital was so much fun, as usual. Her class danced to the Polar Express. She looked so cute in her red costume and did such an amazing job with her routine. She even had her own special part at the beginning by signaling “All Aboard” when he first says it in the song. As usual, we were super proud of our little acrobat.

Lessons and Carols 2024

Ok, I really wasn’t sure if I would ever get back to posting on the blog. But then I was looking at the printed blog books I have from over the years and I realized I would be sad to not continue that. So, here we are well into 2025 and finally catching up on 2024 and 2025.

First up in my major catch up….The Lessons and Carols event at church. This is the second year we’ve had a Lessons and Carols service at Redeemer. In 2023, when they decided to start this tradition, they asked my fellow wedding coordinator friend and I to plan a dinner to go along with the service. We had so much fun planning an elegant dinner together. Then, a week before the event, DJ had his seizure and I had to drop out of the event. Jennifer and some other ladies pulled off a beautiful evening and managed to have enough for 300 people even though we only planned for about 200. When our assistant pastor asked us to plan this year’s event again, it brought up a lot of feelings but I was excited at the chance to be able to be there this year. They decided to shift to a dessert reception after the service instead of the dinner because of the growth at church. This made planning much simpler but Jennifer and I wanted to make it just as elegant as the previous year. We love working on events together and had a blast planning this one. And it was so nice to be able to be there in person this year to see the fruits of our weeks of planning.

Halloween 2024

Zoe decided to be a mermaid for Halloween this year. She was so excited to go trick-or-treating again in my mom’s neighborhood. She definitely loaded up on candy but it wasn’t too much.

Field Trip to Table Rock

When DJ and Ava finally came home, after 2 weeks away, Ava and I decided to take a field trip day to Table Rock. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery while hiking!

Skytop Round 2

Zoe was pretty disappointed that we didn’t pick apples when we went to Skytop the first time. So, she and I decided to take a trip up there when the Pink Lady apples were ready. She had a great time finding the best apples to fill our bag and we are still enjoying them!