My Plans for Christmas Break
My girls got out of school last Friday and are home for two delicious weeks of Christmas break.
(I’ll admit that I had a little bit of a bad attitude about them getting out so long before Christmas and I wished they’d go through December 23rd so I could finish up all my work AND we’d have more time off after Christmas, but after so many people on Instagram told me they wished their kids got out last weekend and they could enjoy the magical weekend before Christmas together, I changed my mind about it and now I’m delighted about the time together leading up to Christmas!)
I look forward to these two weeks 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 an original Yoto Player is better than a Yoto Mini, or if I have a coupon code for Gabb watches.
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, so for the last five or so years, 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 for two weeks, I can also take two weeks off and soak up that time off with them.
I LIVE for these two 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.
Here are my plans for this year’s Christmas Break:
My Christmas BREAK Plans
- Puzzle, Puzzle, Puzzle. I bought this Christmas Doors puzzle in November (I especially love it because beautiful doors always remind me of my mom who LOVES a gorgeous front door) and can’t wait to break it out. And every year for the last four years, I’ve done this Christmas puzzle during Christmas break.
- Hit the slopes! Last year at this time, our two littler girls didn’t ski at all, but this year everyone knows how to ski AND the ski resort is opening earlier than it did last year, thanks to quite a bit of early snow in November. I can’t wait to get back out there as a family!
- Catch up on my photo books. I did my 2020 photo album a few weeks ago and now I’m hoping to do 2021 and also 2022 over Christmas break. It’s one of those projects that feels overwhelming but in actuality isn’t that hard to do (I knocked out the 2020 one in a couple of hours!). I have some tips about making year in review photo books 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.
- Clean out the storage room. Our house has a nice storage/furnace room and I organized it when we moved in, but now 18 months later, it could use a second go-through now that we know better what we’re using in this house, what we need to store, and how we use it. I truly do know how to party.
- Watch White Collar. My all-time favorite TV show is White Collar and a few weeks ago, Bart suggested we start watching it again (I’d watched it a second time, something I almost NEVER do, when Star was a baby in 2015 and I was nursing a ton) and it’s a delight to revisit it.
- Read! Of course reading is on my list for the break. I’m especially hoping to get to a few of the books recommended on this Christmas romance book list!
What’s on your list for Christmas Break? I’d love to hear how you’re spending any time off!
if you liked this post about my Christmas break plans, you might also like these other posts:
Photos by Heather Mildenstein
Love White Collar!! Happy Christmas break!
Yes to reading and doing puzzles during the break! I requested the Cobble Hill Diary of a Country Lady seasonal puzzles from my parents for Christmas and hoping I get to unwrap one of them in a couple of days . . . For books I’m trying (for the first time ever) to spend the next week and a half re-reading books, something I almost never do, we’ll see how it goes.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your family, thank you for all the hard work that you do!
I have not seen White Collar, but I am always looking for a series that I can watch but not have to be incredibly attentive to. Castle was the last one that did that for me. thanks!