A few of my Christmas break plans
On Friday, my girls finished school for the year and are now off for Christmas break.
Which means that I am off for Christmas break too!
I look forward to this two week break all season long, because for the majority of bloggers or influencers, October, November and December are the busiest months of the year.
You’ll correctly guess, based on the catalogs jamming up your mailbox, the increase of deal emails in your inbox and the overwhelming number of sponsored Instagram Stories popping up, that brands have their biggest marketing budgets in Q4 (because it’s when the majority of people do the most spending), so if you’re creating content online, it’s one of the busiest times of the year and the income from this quarter helps offset the times of year when marketing budgets are much slimmer.
I also get more than the usual amount of DMs and messages asking for help picking out a book for a child or whether a Yoto Player or Toniebox is better (spoiler: I’ll tell you Yoto every time!) or a reminder of what the tiny sound machine I love for travel is.
I love answering those questions and helping as much as I can – I feel like I have the best job on earth – so I’m happy to do it.
AND it is very busy.
For the last several year, my team and I have worked incredibly hard to get everything for the rest of the year planned ahead of time so that when my girls get out of school, I can also unplug and soak up this glorious time of year with them.
I LIVE for these weeks with no schedule, no deadlines, and plenty of time to read in bed, play hours of games with the girls, and go on some adventures.
This year is extra fun because my parents live nearby now but they’ll be moving to Paris in January so we’re trying to soak up all the time with them we can before they head out. Plus my brother and his wife are in town, so I don’t want to miss out on any of the fun.
Here are my plans for this year’s Christmas Break:
My Christmas Break Plans
- Paint Ani’s Room. Last year, Ani moved into her own room and this fall she did a massive clean up of it (oh, did it need it!) and now she wants to repaint it. I actually love a good painting project and we’re hoping to paint it dark green during Christmas break!
- Make my Christmas family video. Last year, I sat down on December 26th and made our Christmas video with all the clips Bart and I had taken the day before and I was SO HAPPY to have it done right away so we could enjoy it. If I don’t do it immediately, it’s easy for it to take me literally YEARS to get to it. Details about how I make our family videos here!
- New Year’s Eve Fondue. A few years ago, my girls started talking endlessly about our traditional New Year’s Eve Fondue (which. . . I didn’t realize was a tradition after one year), so we invited a bunch of cousins over and had a really fun New Year’s Eve. Now it truly is a tradition, so come New Year’s Eve there WILL be chocolate fondue and a big spread of dipping items.
- Watch the Ocean’s 11 series. I LOVE this movie (and the other 3 are pretty good too!) so Bart and I are planning to watch the four of them with our 2 big girls over Christmas break. There’s nothing cozier than putting the little girls to bed and then squashing in our bed to watch a movie together. Just feels like vacation!
- Read all the picture books in my office. I get a LOT of books as part of my job and they’ve really been piling up this fall. My windowsill has STACKS of picture books and it is time to go through and read them all (plus reading them with my girls snuggled up on the couch is an ideal way to spend a Christmas break afternoon!).
- Plan for 2025. One of my favorite traditions during Christmas break is the day that Bart and I spend together working on our goals and plans for the upcoming year. I wrote a whole post about that here, if you’re curious.
- Do a 5 mile run! I’ve hit most of my goals for 2024 but this is one I haven’t knocked off yet and this feels like the perfect time to do it. I regularly do a 3 mile run (which absolutely amazes me when I was such a bad runner 2 years ago) but I’ve never in my life done 5 miles so I’m excited to tackle this with a good audiobook to keep me company!
- Try out the gel polish from Olive & June. I’m a long-time fan of Olive & June nail polish and I just ordered their new gel polish system and I can’t wait to try it out over Christmas break!
- Read! Of course this is on my list and I’m excited to finish off my reading year AND get a head start on the January book for Everyday Reading Book Club!
What’s on your list for Christmas Break? I’d love to hear how you’re spending any time off!
Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas! Thank you for all that you do! I love your book suggestions, Kindle info, recipes, and so much more that you and your fabulous team share with us. Wishing you all the best in 2025!
Don’t miss Ocean’s 8!