Christmas 2024: Celebrations, The Food, & Gifts from Santa!

I’ve been feeling kind of sad all day thinking about how Christmas is over and how this year is coming to an end soon. But I’m also hopeful about 2025. I made some pretty good decisions this year that led to me being happier—I got to travel to my dream spots, watched my son grow into an outgoing, opinionated, and strong-willed toddler, and dealt with some health struggles that I’m hopeful will have some resolution in 2025. I know some people don’t like making resolutions, but I REALLY DO. I love having a marker for a fresh start, and I love setting goals. I plan to do the same for the New Year—but enough about that. I’m here to share my annual Christmas recap blog!

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I cannot believe I’ve shared my Christmas celebrations with you all for the past sixteen years. It’s really fun for me to look back and see how life has changed, and it’s hard not to feel proud of the life I’ve built. I love being a mom—especially being able to bring Christmas magic into the home for my sweet boy. The fact that his childhood memories are in my hands is the coolest feeling. My parents made my Christmas so special as a kid, and I have that will to do the same for my family.

‘Twas a few days before Christmas…

Kyle grew up with the tradition of pizzelles in his family. His mom gave me her recipe and bought me a pizzelle maker. I knew this meant that I needed to bring some of his Christmas traditions into our celebrations, so I made a huge batch of pizzelles! I had to halve the recipe, as hers would have fed the entire country of Italy and then some. For some of the pizzelles, I decided to experiment and make them gingerbread-flavored by adding molasses, ginger, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon. I finished them off with white chocolate and sprinkles! They were so good!

Later that night, I brought some pizzelles and a toasted jalapeño pepperjack sourdough loaf with honey jalapeño cheese spread over to my good friend and neighbor’s house for a girls’ Christmas PJs and game night. It was so much fun! I love love love game nights!

On Sunday, I headed over to my good friend’s house for a mom date! We had coffee, ate Ilios for lunch, and took the little toddlers out for a walk to the park. It’s so much fun watching our kids have friends they get to grow up and play with. These two can be trouble, though!

Later that afternoon, I headed out to go grocery shopping and then to a park date, just to stay out of the house for a few hours while dad watched the Eagles game. I know he looks forward to those games each week, and it’s always hard when your toddler is pulling your arm to play with the train set, so I decided we’d spend the day doing all the fun park things until the game was over! Sometimes, its nice to give each parent a “day.” My boys have been out doing fun things since early this morning so I could stay back and relax, blog, and just have some quiet time to myself.Early morning coffee for me! Gosh, I’m LOVING my new automatic coffee maker. I always make frothed milk with hot chocolate for my son since he always wants my coffee cup. He’s been like that since he was a baby

Later in the day on Monday, we all went out to do some family shopping and a haircut for the little one. First, we stopped at Waterbean to pick up some of their amazing coffee beans my friend got me hooked on. It’s the Nightfall blend, and so so so good.

Before the hair appointment, we stopped at Salmeris for an Italian lunch! We all split the meatballs, Caprese salad, and my son had their yummy chicken strips and french fries. If live near Charlotte/Fort Mill, SC, I highly recommend this spot. It’s consistently delicious!!  When we got back, I made myself and oat milk cappuccino, and sat around to relax for a little bit before getting started on some sourdough recipes! I love fitting in Netflix Christmas movies when I can.
On Christmas eve, I made orange chocolate cheesecake, and blueberry crisp sourdough cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy on Christmas Day! I’ll have that cheesecake recipe up in January (even though I’m going to try hard to get more savory and healthier recipes up in the new year!) There are a few changes I need to make before it’s perfect.
After they cooled, I stuck them in the freezer!

Before Christmas Eve service, I made another pepperjack jalapeño sourdough loaf for our neighbors. She said her husband was sad he didn’t get to have any since us ladies ate the entire thing on ladies night, so I figured they’d deserved their own loaf to enjoy on Christmas! She’s one of my best friends, and I’m so glad I get to live a few houses down. When we met over four years ago, I knew we’d be trouble! I love love love giving the gift of homemade breads and treats. Cooking for others is my love language. I don’t really like shopping for gifts, but cooking, I like to do!On Christmas Eve night, we got all dressed up and headed to Church! We have been putting going to church off with a toddler since it’s a little stressful, but we’ve been wanting to try, and it didn’t go as horrible as expected. The good thing is he’s familiar with this church since he does chapel there during preschool. He didn’t understand the whole whisper concept and kept saying, “LETS LEAVE!” really loud which was mortifying, but funny now that we look back on it. I think next time we’ll send him to the little nursery while we attend the service. Better luck next time!After dinner on Christmas eve, we got started on making Christmas cookies for Santa. I saved some gingerbread dough from the sourdough recipe, and we made Christmas trees with icing and sprinkles! It was so much fun! He kept saying “Santa will eat this one!”

He made sure to line up the carrots perfectly before going to bed! We had to put the dogs upstairs in our room early for bed otherwise the cookies and carrots would have really been eaten by the reindeer.

And because I do stressful things sometimes, I saved all the Christmas present wrapping for Christmas Eve. It actually went by pretty fast. I wrapped everything while Kyle put things together! It was kind of fun staying up late together, and making all the Christmas magic happen. We lifted up his playhouse, put it on the porch, and wrapped it in colored lights with all the chewed up carrots around it.

I managed to get into bed by 10 pm on Christmas Eve. These were our matching pajamas from last year. I loved the dinos!Yummy cinnamon rolls for the family!I was so so so so excited for him to wake up, but of course he didn’t wake up until 8 am. I wanted to let him sleep in since there was never going to be a nap with grandma and grandpa coming over in the afternoon, and all the fun sugary things to eat. Rules are meant to be bent on Christmas!

While he slept, I made another loaf of pepperjack jalapeño bread (highly requested by everyone!) for my family’s dinner, and when my parents got there I heated them up some cinnamon rolls, made them gingerbread cappuccinos, and then made my son his go-to breakfast, but this time with some donut balls on the side. I usually make him smoothies every morning, but he got lucky with the yogurt pouch on Christmas.

OH MY GOSH WAS HE THE MOST EXCITED BOY EVER!!! He just kept saying, “wow! wow! wow!”

I’m pretty sure this sweet boy got everything he wanted and more. All the legos, the trucks, the train sets, the cars, and thank goodness we did a donation clean out the week before Christmas.

We sent him to my parents house so we could donate about 50% of his toys before Christmas day. He was so excited for his own Lego table. We always take a trip to the mall so he can play at the Lego store on their table, and now he has one of his own! This is one of those fun gifts he’ll be able to grow into.

He also got some really cool gifts from his aunts and uncles!

Our matching pajamas this year! (moms)(toddlers)(dads top & bottom) They are so soft, and I love that the red and white stripes go for most holidays. I’ll be wearing these for Valentine’s day too.After opening all the gifts from Santa, my parents came over and brought even more presents! My mom is the ultimate gift giver. I told her that she needs to create a gift guide on my Amazon shop since she’s always finding the coolest toddler gifts. Maybe I’ll create a page called “mama T’s gifts!”

While my parents were opening gifts, I made a little seasonal charcuterie board to snack on throughout the day.

It had crackers, meats, cheeses, nuts, candied oranges, berries, grapes, and rosemary! Anytime I’m at Trader Joes, I stock up on their candied oranges. I use them for desserts, in my tea, as decorations, or sometimes to just eat! They are so pretty and delicious.

A little hand kept sneaking bites of cheese.

We spent most of the day going in and out of the house playing with the gifts, and I tried my best to stay on top of the cleaning and organizing. I was going behind cleaning up wrapping paper, breaking down boxes, and putting new toys on playroom shelves.

It has to be so confusing as a 2 1/2 year old with getting so many gifts all of a sudden. He wasn’t complaining tho, just going from one thing to the next! He loved the little dress up bin my mom got him with all of the fun vests and hats. His favorite thing to do was dress up as a fireman and drive around on his scooter pretending to hose out the fires. The absolute greatest grandparents a kid could ask for. I’m so lucky to have a mom and dad that love my son as much as they love me (maybe him a little more! lol)

My mother in law got him the coolest ride on excavator! He went nuts when he saw it parked in our living room. We took him out in it in the backyard and he was LOVING it (watch the video to see him on it!) I can’t wait for it to warm up, and have him help me do some gardening this spring.My mom got him a little camera that actually works! He saw me taking photos of the orange chocolate cake with my camera and came over with his to do the same. It’s so cool you can upload the photos to your computer! I can’t wait to have him take this camera on vacation with us.

I was really excited when 4:30 pm hit because that meant I could get started with cooking in the kitchen! We kept it pretty simple this year! Well, simple compared to Thanksgiving.

I made a Caprese salad with Cherokee tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella cheese, olive oil, arctic seasoning, and balsamic. It’s one of my favorite side dishes, and so easy to make! Plus, it’s so pretty!

My sweet neighbor brought over her famous mac and cheese and dinner rolls, which were so good! They always are! I’m going to be sad come February when I have to stop gluten again(read in my latest recap why I had to start eating it again.)

Kyle made the filet mignon roast (AMAZING!!) and he got that recipe from his dad during our last visit. It’s so good. I want to go to the store to buy more so he can make it again tonight. Is that crazy? Gosh, It was so good with our caesar salads.

The caesar salad had mixed lettuce, romaine, spinach, Caesar vinaigrette, rosemary Parmesan Asiago cheese, and cracked pepper. It was amazing mixed with the Caprese salad and the perfectly cooked steak on top. I also made a bowl of fresh guacamole because steak, caesar salads, and guacamole just go together.

I’m a sucker for setting the table, and making it festive and cute. I already have a bunch of things purchased for a Galentines day dinner this year. I want to start doing dinner parties regularly. Let me know if you think I should do a series like that with the menu, the decor, and the recipes.

And the spicy sourdough bread….IT DOES NOT GET OLD. its one of the best breads I’ve ever made. If I ever went back into selling breads again, that one would be it. My husband has me make it at least twice a week for him. He uses it as his “carb source” after working out. Thesourdough bread topped with the tomatoes and mozzarella is the most amazing combo. One of my friends is about to give birth here in a few weeks and I’m already planning on making her this entire set up.
I am convinced that we should just do filet mignon roasts for Thanksgiving from now on. I like turkey, but it’s nothing compared to a good steak.

We all stayed up way too late playing with toys and cleaning up messes, but this Christmas was one of the best ones yet!! It’s so fun seeing it through my toddlers eyes.My mom got him so many fun gifts, ones that I actually want to play with myself! She got him this fancy easel, some chalk, cars, and a fish tank (that I’m obsessed with!) I added a bunch of the items he got to my amazon storefront if you need any links!

I hope you all had the BEST Christmas! Thanks for stopping by to read yet another Christmas recap, and I can’t wait to hear about your celebrations. I’ll be back to share some New Years things before the year is done, so this isn’t a goodbye to 2024 from me just yet! Talk soon!

Questions for you!

1. How was your Christmas?
2. What does your Christmas celebrations look like?
3. What was the best thing you ate at Christmas?