A Very Ina December

The girls and I made a paper chain with 25 rings, hung it up on December first, and have been taking one off every day since to count down the days until Christmas. Part fun craft, part helpful tool for me to refer to the paper chain when asked “is it Christmas yet???” for the one hundredth time before breakfast. I can’t say I blame them, I’m just as eager.

Michael wraps up finals season tomorrow and we are all absolutely exhausted and absolutely over the moon to kick off winter break. We’ve gotten so spoiled to having four weeks off starting around this time of year, it’ll be a rude awakening next Christmas! We’re all so eager to have him around nonstop after studying 7 days a week for what feels like forever.

Our Christmas tree is dying so I’ve been brainstorming some ways to give it a bit of fresh life for Christmas. I guess that’s what we get for buying it like four months ago. :)

We’ve unintentionally started a tradition of spending December evenings working on a puzzle as a family while watching the Barefoot Contessa (also while eating this freezer fudge - we like ours with pretzels on top), and I couldn’t be less mad about it. What’s cozier than snuggling up with your kiddos while listening to Ina talk about herbed ricotta bruschettas? This is definitely a tradition I’ll fight to keep going as long as I can. We’re thinking of making this on Christmas Day because Ina does no wrong and it feels just wrong at this point not to include her in our holiday menu. The girls have been asking to make red velvet cake for Jesus’ birthday cake this year (something we do every year on Christmas Eve), so maybe we’ll make this one to round out a very Ina December.