The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

Ahhh the time of year when I have no idea what day it is, where I am supposed to be or how these cookies got in my mouth. I took down some of our Christmas decor today, but I am still loving quiet, dark mornings with coffee and my beautiful tree, so up it stays. The Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year thanks mostly to all the fun ways that our little family celebrates. Visits with Santa, Christmas light peeping, meals with friends and all that togetherness that comes with the season. The rest of my love is from the ways in which our community comes together to make the season brighter for everyone else, including our annual road race and the toy drive that is hosted the same day. This year my Mom was with us for a week and we got to include her in what have now become our traditions - Boston Ballet's Nutcracker, dinner at Legal Seafood overlooking the Aquarium, new cookie recipes and watching Home Alone on repeat. Watching Maddie sing "I'm Gettin...

Happy New Year, y'all! People (me) are still saying this in greeting, and will until at least February, so I don't feel too behind in my first post of the year (even if my last post was in October). 2018 wrapped up pretty great - we celebrated Maddie turning 7 with a very epic Harry Potter party (that will get its own belated post because it was just too awesome not to share), a simple and sweet Thanksgiving and ALL THE CHRISTMAS fun that we could fit in throughout the month of December. Christmas Day goes so fast (about 35 minutes by my watch) so we did a bunch of extra special stuff to soak in the magic of the season: The Boston Ballet Nutcracker, lots of walks around the neighborhood to look at lights, near-daily Christmas music dance parties, The Pop's Home Alone show, a trip to Maine and Great Wolf Lodge and spending time hunkered under blankets watching Christmas movies together. All those fun times make it not so sad when I declare Christmas to be over about 12 ...

Well, this has been a heck of a year, huh? I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I will be glad to put some of the events behind me, but looking forward to keeping the motivation that those shitty things have given me to keep up the good fight in 2018. So here is what I am up to as we tick down to the final hours of the year. Reading My Goodreads app tells me I am 7 books ahead of my 2017 reading challenge with 24 books read so far this year. Considering that I only get to read when I am commuting to/from/during work on the train or sitting on the beach without the kids needing me (so, 5 minutes each summer), I am pretty pleased! I have read some really good books this year, and am currently on my second biography about North Korean defectors, titled A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea . It was one of the monthly free books available from Amazon Prime that I randomly downloaded onto my Kindle (which I rarely use) while I was awaiting my library ...

I think I might be a little busy over the next couple of days, so just wanted to pop in and say Merry Christmas (!!!) and put some thoughts down around this little season of life. This year is SO MUCH FUN with Maddie; 5 is a golden age where she is so excited about everything that matters - our time together looking at the lights in the neighborhood, reading The Grinch every night before bed, singing along to her curated Christmas playlist (thanks, Amazon music!) and counting down the days until Santa swings by. She is excited for gifts, of course, but is way more focused on all that other good stuff, which I am going to relish for as long as it lasts. I have been making sure we get all the Christmas cheer in that we can fit while also taking time to just enjoy these little humans (and that older, handsome one that lives in our house too). I transitioned into a new job a month ago and it has made a huge difference in my work life balance. I didn't even realize how much I was c...

I hide nothing when it comes to my love of Christmas and each year as Maddie gets a little older and a little more into it the magic of the season just overwhelms me. This has been a really fun year with her, not to mention we get to have Annabel experiencing her first Christmas (wrapping paper is the BEST!). Even though we have been super busy this year, we have spent a lot of time looking at lights, reading books, doing crafts, baking cookies, watching movies and enjoying everything that Christmas is about. Maddie has been all about it, and not all about the presents, which makes my mama heart so very happy. Even if it isn't always the case, I hope we can keep the focus on the real core of the holiday and make sure that we are also giving back as much as possible to those don't have a basement full of toys waiting for Santa to deliver them tonight (all from our friends and family who spoil my sweet girls so!). I hear it time and time again that these are the years; the magic...

Even though this Christmas seemed to come and go at lightning speed, it was a really, really awesome one. At one point I was washing dishes and I thought to myself how awesome it was to be in our OWN home that we own forever and ever, celebrating Christmas with our little family. It was so comforting to know that next year we would be in this same home and have another little person to share in the magic of Christmas with! We didn't do anything over the top and the focus was more on Maddie than anything else, and it was perfect. She got lots of presents from all of our wonderful family and friends and seemed so truly thankful as she opened each one up. All she asked Santa for was a giraffe that was big enough to ride one, and when she walked into the living room Christmas morning to see just that I think her little heart soared right out of her chest. She turned to me and said "Mama, is that a giraffe? For me?"; it made my heart melt as I watched her hop on with her swe...

I can hardly believe that Christmas is just a week away! Life has been so very busy with the day-to-day but we are really trying to take some time everyday to enjoy the season and see the magic of it all through Maddie's eyes. It was a lot of fun to deck the halls of our new home and I am already excited to hit some of those post-Christmas sales to add to our arsenal for next year. Having such festive walls makes it pretty hard to forget that Christmas is coming, even when we are swimming in work, school and new baby preparations. I just wanted to pop in and share some pictures that I took the other night and wish you all a happy one week until Christmas! Our Christmas tree! We love getting Christmas cards! This year our hallways is a great place to display them.  The tattooed Nutcracker got extra tough with a Maker's Mark scarf this year.  Another gift from Maker's Mark; oh how I miss thee in my eggnog.  Maddie has her own tree in her room w...