Merry Christmas Friends!

It’s Christmas afternoon and I’m sitting on my couch looking at the picture of snowy pine trees hanging on the wall beside me. I look outside and see a totally different reality — bare trees, fading green grass coated with the remnant leaves of Fall, and a mild 60 degree sunshiny day. When I was younger, Christmases were almost always white. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas this year, but I know I won’t find it here in North Carolina…

Growing up, my family and I would stay up late Christmas Eve to watch the Santa tracker on the local news, then we’d set out some cookies and a glass of milk on our way to bed for the night. I remember trying so hard to stay awake to catch Santa year after year, yet I always failed the mission and fell asleep. On Christmas morning, my sisters and I would wake up early to check the snowy yard for reindeer tracks before rushing to the tree to count and size up gifts from Santa.

I had two irrational fears as a kid on Christmas morning. The first: finding no presents under the Christmas tree because Santa forgot to come to our house. The second: fearing that I was so naughty that I’d actually open a lump of coal in all my presents. All that being said, Christmas was so magical as a kid! I love reminiscing on my childhood Christmas memories.

This year, I decided to stay in North Carolina for the holidays. I usually head back to Wisconsin to spend time with family, but I’ve been so busy this year that I felt I needed a bit of a break. It’s bittersweet — I love spending time with the Brandl fam, but I’m also loving the extra holiday time off with my boys.

Alex and I enjoyed a slow-paced, cozy Christmas morning. I’ve been feeling under the weather this week, but I’m finally starting to feel better today. I’d rather take shots of anything else than the DayQuil and NyQuil shots I’ve been taking the last few days.

This morning, I made a delicious cinnamon roll french toast casserole for breakfast and brewed our last pot of Door County Christmas coffee to go with it. Alex and I exchanged gifts, took some Christmas photos, and sat outside on the patio by the fire for about an hour. Now we’re watching the NBA and lounging on the couch. My coffee just finished brewing and you can bet I’ll be mixing it with some Bailey’s and Rum Chata when I hit publish on this post!

Anyways, here are some of the photos we took of the boys and me in the holiday spirit. Even though we planned to, Alex and I didn’t have a chance to make and send Christmas cards, so this blog post and collage photos below will have to cover our delinquencies for this year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the day with those you love! We’re going to make stir fry and frost our Christmas cookies later tonight — yum!

Enjoy!

JB