Casual Friday | Holiday Recap + December's Video Recap

We spent most of the holidays with our large families at our cabin and even in its in-progress state, all of the hard work we've put into it over the last few months all felt worth it. We have a full post coming up next week about all the furnishings we've added to the cabin thus far and the details on the painted walls and toned beams are coming Monday! December 23rd we were still carrying in furniture and the last thing we did was put up our tree (we got this one from Balsam Hill). The whole season was magical, to be honest.

Every month, we love sharing a behind the blog video recap of all the moments in between projects. December's has to be my favorite yet. I just want to freeze time. Life with these girls is so precious right now.

Here are some other photo highlights of our holiday. Willow joined us and loved running all over our property pouncing around in the snow. I worried she might run out in the street or not be able to find her way back or find a bear (!!!), but she checked in often and slept inside at nights and I think her vote is to live at the cabin permanently. (Not going to happen, but we'll bring her up as often as possible.)

Here's us on Christmas morning! The funniest story is I bought all the girls matching pajamas from Gymboree, but I must have accidentally got Faye and Greta the adult size (which I didn't know they carried!) because Faye's smalls fit me and Greta's would fit Chris. So Polly and I ended up having matching pajamas and it wasn't all a loss. (They are $7 right now if you're interested!) Psst. I got Chris these pajama pants and he loved them so much!

It snowed non-stop. It made for the perfect white Christmas and I'm so glad we put two of these buffalo check snow tubes (they work so well and will last forever because of the thick plastic coating around the entire tube!) under the tree for the girls because after breakfast they played outside all morning.

Polly stayed inside (with her sweet cousin, Ollie--c'mon! the cuteness!) snuggling on her gift from Santa--this oversized sherpa chair. Greta and Faye--even I--also fit in it so I'm hoping it will last a good long time. (Psst! It's on sale right now!) We keep it in her room and she hasn't left this chair. We find her frequently sitting in it and reading all of her books.

We went back to our home for a day to regroup and I took a picture of us in our Christmas outfits since I didn't get a chance to take one on Christmas Sunday. It's one of the more Mom things I have ever done and I am not ashamed. Our girls have read Camille Andros's book The Girl and the Dress hundreds of times this year and for Christmas, she sent them a special copy along with two beautiful dresses from Pleiades Designs for Polly and Faye. It was the kind of gift that made me wish we could have three more girls. (My dress is from H&M right here.)

Psst--remember early in 2018 when Faye cut off all her hair and it looked like this? It's grown out quite nicely. She's meant for a bob, right?!.

After Christmas, Chris's family all left and my side of the family arrived!

We mostly sang musicals, soaked in the hot tub, talked beauty products (I made all my sisters try my bronzing face mist after the above photo was taken!) and laughed endlessly. Before Christmas we got a Keurig for the cabin and a bunch of these enamel mugs (I got a few red rimmed and mostly black rimmed and LOVE them) so that anyone could be sipping something hot whenever they wanted.

The temperature dropped drastically over New Years (it hit -14 one morning) so I kept the little ones inside, while the dads and older kids continued sledding outside.  The reading nook with the window seat we made in one of the bedrooms last year turns out to have the perfect view of the sledding hill. I sat here for almost an hour with the girls completely entertained.

We got addicted to a new board game (Camel Up!), played a lot of virtual reality, never slept in once (boo), ate so much food (It's the holidays! is what we say anytime of the year when we splurge on a food item...but this time it really WAS the holidays.) and soaked up every minute with our loved ones we don't see nearly enough.

We hope you had the best, best holiday. Chris and I talked about you over the break and are so grateful for each and every one of you!