It’s nearly the new year! I have been thinking about goals for 2024, and they mostly center around reading and creating. I’m always striving to beat the previous years’ book count (I definitely succeeded this year!) but I’m also inspired to fill more blog posts with the fun happenings in this stage of life with a toddler. But before we look ahead, let’s wrap up 2023! Pour your coffee, and go ahead and spike it – it’s a holiday weekend after all!

Christmas this year was unique to us because we celebrated in our own home! Up until now, we’ve always gone to my parent’s house and spent the night on Christmas Eve. They only live 15 minutes away, so it’s no roadtrip. But it’s nice to wake up on Christmas morning, stay in jammies, pour our coffees and slowly open stockings while the cinnamon rolls bake.

That changes with a little one. Now we need to stay in our own home so that Christmas morning starts with her waking up to presents under her tree! Here’s a 5 minute vlog of Christmas with Brynnley before I get into our gifts & recipes!

It’s honestly a Christmas miracle that Zeb was even home for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day! As a commercial airline pilot, his work schedule is dictated by seniority with the company. The newer the pilot, the crappier the schedule. We have definitely had our fair share of years where he worked nearly every weekend, holiday and birthday and it seems like we are finally turning a corner where he’s built up enough seniority to earn a few of the trips he bids for! He was home this year for all of the holiday festivities which is so deserved for ALL of us after last year’s travel nightmare that had us post-poning Brynnley’s 1st Christmas until December 27th.

My parents, who go by Gigi and Pop Pop for Brynnley, arrived right after we all woke up at got ourselves ready. Well, not too ready since we stayed in our matching plaid jammies until after breakfast.

Brynnley greeted my dad as he walked in with an arm-load full of presents and exclaimed “WOW! SOOO MANY!” in her cute little toddler voice. Her animated reactions are my favorite! She says things like “I Yuv It!” and “Thank You Mommy!” which is just the sweetest thing to hear.

Holiday Eats

The night before, I washed and cut some fruit for a fruit salad. I copied a Pinterest idea and portioned everyone’s fruit salad out into waffle cones to look like an overflowing cornecopia with a dallop of Cool Whip. My mom was on pancake duty, making baby-size pancakes for miniature stacks that we topped with whip cream and an upside-down strawberry to look like a Santa hat. A new recipe I tried this year was for Cracked Out Hashbrown Casserole. In a glass pan, I combined pre-cooked hashbrowns, chopped up pre-cooked bacon, 4 beaten eggs, a cup of shredded cheese, milk, and a ranch seasoning packet (the secret ingredient) and baked for an hour. I think this recipe will be a keeper!

Dinner was simple, since it was just Zeb, Brynnley and I. I made a green salad and yummy roasted sweet potato rounds with lots of herbs. We got a preseasoned pork loin to smoke on the Traeger and we were all too full for dessert!

Toddler Gifts

Brynnley is 22-months, and her birthday is at the end of February. I had a fun time shopping for her this year, combining a little bit of what she needed (new shoes & some snow mittens) with new toys that would hopefully provide MONTHS of entertainment. If you have a toddler around the same age that you’re shopping for, here are a couple gift ideas:

• Little Tikes Trampoline: I got this on Black Friday Sale after keeping my eye on it for a few months. Winter is so cold here in Idaho that we don’t get our daily walks in like we do spring through fall, so I thought this toddler trampoline would be a great active outlet for the little one when we are stuck inside and need to burn some energy! So far Brynnley loves it, but hasn’t quite yet learned to jump where her feet leave the ground haha.
• 6-sided Wooden Puzzle: Brynnley needs a challenge because she easily memorizes the simple baby puzzles. This one looks challenging enough for her not to be able to memorize it any time soon!
• Bluetooth Headphones: Brynnley has a little Kids Fire Tablet that we use for long drives or when we’re at a restaurant with friends and want to be able to enjoy the food and conversation ourselves! Ain’t no shame in some screen time over here! We look at it as a tool. So far, Brynnley has been content watching Cocomelon without sound when we’re in public, but when I saw these adorable toddler wireless over-the-ear headphones, I knew they’d come in handy for her.
• Duck Slide Bath Toy: We make bath time last as long as possible after dinner, and her same stackable cups were getting a little boring. This cute slide suction cups to the side of the tub and allows little ducks to flow down, hopefully providing hours of bathtime play.
• Bath Tub Markers: These are a hit in our house! They color the side of the tub and wipe clean easily. These were a stocking stuffer.
• Around-The-Farm Sound Book: So far this book has been a Christmas favorite for Brynnley who sits and pushes all of the animal sound buttons for quite some time each day!

Other Christmas Goodies

I picked out a couple of items for Zeb that he didn’t specifically ask for, like a portable mini crockpot that he could take on his trips with him to heat up his lunches and dinners. Did you know that not all hotel rooms have microwaves?! I find that so hard to believe nowadays but it’s pretty common for him to have a room without, and we try to meal prep and pack him food to avoid eating out every night.

He also got a few tools he requested, some new ties to replace his outdated bright purple ones, a TheraGun massager, and a tactical bag.

Having Brynnley makes picking out presents for my parents easier – they love being grandparents and there are so many cute items out there to make Gigi-and-Pop-Pop-Life more fun! We knew they like tracking height and growth so we got a custom wooden height board from Etsy, plus a digital picture from and some kids art shadow box frames.

Zeb totally surprised me with something that hadn’t been on my radar this year – a Cricut Maker! If you haven’t heard of them, they are a craft machine that can cut out any digital image or text you can dream up on your computer or phone. They cut many materials, like vinyl, iron-on, and even wood. They can create cut-outs that adhere to mugs, clothing, wooden boards, you name it. If you’ve ever custom ordered something on Etsy, it was probably made with a Cricut! I’m excited to learn more about how it works and start crafting a few homemade projects.

Christmas Season Celebrations

No post-Christmas blues here, I think we are ready to get our house back to normal and welcome 2024. We got to celebrate Christmas all month long! Our first Christmas party was on December 1st for the Idaho Aviation Association. The following weekend, my parents hosted their annual Christmas Party/Soup Cook-Off and this year it was themed “A Griswold Christmas” where we all dressed as characters from the classic movie Christmas Vacation. No one shared what their costume would be beforehand, so it was pretty surprising when my parents opened their door wearing the exact same outfits as Zeb and I. I don’t mean similar – I mean we purchased identical products on Amazon to both dress as Todd and Margot, the neighbors.

We had a classic Cousin Eddy in his white robe, his wife Catherine Mary from the department store, Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis, and then a bunch of Christmas Vacation-themed shirts including Brynnley’s. It was so much fun and there was so much delicious soups, chilis and stews to sample for dinner!

2023 Blog Post

Tomorrow I’m typing up a 2023 recap post here to wrap up the year with some photos and memories I hadn’t gotten around to sharing.

See you then!

-Kenz