Christmas

2025 Christmas Bucket List

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

I cannot believe the holiday season is here! I am feeling more festive this year than I have in a while, and that is a welcoming feeling! I came up with a Christmas holiday bucket list to make sure we get out and enjoy some fun holiday cheer.

The nice thing about this list is that you can decide how festive you want to be! There are some years I’ve had to give myself grace and allow myself to do the bare minimum. You don’t have to go crazy; every effort, no matter how small, can still make a difference.

So here we go! Scroll to the bottom for the printable list! I also have a blank option for those who would like to create their own. As you will see, my list is not completely filled out. I like leaving space to write in some extra things we think of later, and it’s also a reminder that it’s okay to make space and not do it all.

~ Attend a Local Holiday Event

This can be a going to a holiday market or craft fair, attending Christmas play or The Nutcracker ballet, or whatever is going on around your town. If you have Facebook, the event page is a great place to look to see what is going on locally or visit your city’s web page visitors guide. Our local library puts on quite a few events as well. We have a couple ideas in mind for our family, so stay tuned to see what we decide!

~ Decorate for Christmas

Here’s an easy item to check off your list! We had to get rid of A LOT of Christmas decorations when we moved years ago, so every year since we try to buy one Christmas decoration to restock our home. Every year our home feels a little extra cozy.

~ Listen to a Daily Advent Podcast

This is turning into my one of my favorite traditions. The kids gather their blankets by the tree and we turn off all the lights except for the Christmas tree and we listen. It feels so peaceful and special. <3

Even if you haven’t started, it’s not too late to catch up! Here are some great options:

  • “We Wonder” podcast. I would say this is a great podcast for anyone around age 8 and over. I listened to this last year with my son and we both enjoyed it. This advent series is an older one so you will need to scroll to find the dates.

  • “Countdown to Christmas with Zach” podcast is the one we chose this year. Londyn is still pretty little so it’s been a great option. I love that he shares facts about the meaning of certain Christmas decorations. It gets them thinking about the real meaning of Christmas and they can even get involved by calling to leave a voicemail with their answers to the questions he asks!

“Making Space: An Advent Devotional” by Susan Narjala. I am also going through this advent devotional series this year.

~ Make Hot Chocolate and Watch a Christmas Movie

This is a simple item that you can check off your list without much effort! I personally love the movie “The Holiday” and my kids favorite is a tie between “The Star” and “The Grinch” (2018 cartoon version).

~ Make an Ornament

A simple Google search pulls up lots of ideas! Decorating a gingerbread house has also crossed my mind!

~ Bake Christmas Cookies

This can be as simple as letting Pillsbury do all the work and buy pre-made cookie dough or baking cookies from scratch and elaborately decorating them. I usually land somewhere in the middle, but I’ve had my share of years that I chose the easy route…and no one cried.

~ Drive Around to look at Christmas Lights

Last year we had the kids get in their Christmas jammies, got them hot chocolate, and drove around to the different neighborhoods with the best Christmas light displays. Our daughter was only 2 and a half, but she still remembers it so well and can’t wait to do it again!

~ Attend a Christmas Eve Service

The Candlelight Christmas Eve service is my absolute favorite! I would invite each you you reading this to come with me if I could! We have traditionally ordered a pizza and watched a Christmas movie after. I’m looking forward to doing this again!

So there you have it! I would love to know what’s on your Christmas bucket list!

Here are the printable lists:

Christmas Bucket List (Pre-filled)Download

Christmas Bucket List (Blank)Download

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I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! I would love to know what favorite holiday traditions are!

Much Love,

Cami

Currently December 2020

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

December! We made it through the year! What a year this has been. This month was insanely, insanely busy! So busy I wasn’t sure if I was going to get this post up but I didn’t want to break my streak! I’m so thankful I managed to blog throughout the whole year.

Anyway, as previously said, this months was busy! There was picture taking, and baking, and creating, and shopping, and wrapping, and packaging, and mailing. I’m so glad to be done now! All that work paid off and we had a wonderful Christmas :). My husband had to work Christmas night, so Gryffin and I woke up and I watched as he opened his gift from Santa and his stocking (I took a video so Mikey could watch it later). I have to say, age 3, is the absolute best age for Christmas! While I know Gryffin will be excited for Christmas next year, I’m not sure he will ever be as excited as he was this year.

Here’s what else we were up to this month.

Currently Watching

Mikey and I are finally back on watching The Mandalorian! We saw there was only 6 episodes in season 2 so we are starting from the beginning to try and stretch it out.

Family movie nights have consisted of…

  • WonderLand – This was such a cute movie! I highly recommend. It’s on Amazon Prime.
  • Finding Nemo – Finally! I have been trying to get Gryffin to watch this movie for months but he just wasn’t interested. We went through a Disney advent calendar where he got to open a new book every night and one of them was a Finding Nemo Christmas. We were finally able to talk him into watching it. He has asked to watch it just about every weekend ever since.
  • Finding Dory
  • The Grinch
  • The Star – I love this movie! This might even be our annual Christmas Eve movie for the next couple years.

Currently Reading

Nothing aside from my Advent devotional on the YouVersion Bible App. I talked about it a little more in my last post here.

Currently Making/Baking

I went a little crazy and baked 4 different kinds of cookies this year. Why did I think this was a good idea?!?! I baked them all in a matter of 2 days. I’m not sure what I was thinking! I baked Snowball cookies, Chocolate Peppermint cookies, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies, and Sugar cookies (which turned out looking like a train wreck, but Gryffin loved them)

Next year I’m sticking to two different kinds,1 batch each, and that’s it, haha.

Current Favorite

The quiet, peaceful, and still moments in the middle of the crazy and busiest season of all. The silent nights were comforting and also a reminder of how important it is to quiet and calm my heart and mind.

Also, watching Gryffin’s excitement probably makes it a tie. :)

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I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and here is to a much, much better 2021!

Much love to you all,

Cami

5 Ways to Get Into the Holiday Spirit…Even When You Don’t Feel Like It

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

5 Ways To Get In The Holiday Spirit…Even When You Don’t Feel Like It.

I have been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. I know I’m not alone here. For some this year has been extremely difficult in every way possible, and for that I am incredibly sorry and want to give you a virtual hug.

Even though things are weird this year I realized that it’s up to me to create my own happiness. All year I have fought through the “blah’s”. I refuse to allow Covid to take away my joy. Instead of focusing on what I can’t do, I’m choosing to focus on what I can do. Just because things are different doesn’t mean that it’s all bad. So, even though I haven’t been in the mood, here are 5 ways I’m getting myself into the holiday spirit.

1. Accept

First of all, it’s ok if we’re not feeling the Holiday spirit this year. Sometimes it makes it worse to ignore our feelings and pretend they aren’t there, when they very clearly are. Maybe you don’t feel like putting up Christmas lights – it’s ok. Maybe your family doesn’t have matching Christmas jammies – it’s ok (we never do!). Maybe you don’t want to bake Christmas cookies this year – it’s ok. Sometimes we just have to let go of the expectations and do what we can. I want to emphasize that last part “do what we can“. It will get better.

2. Turn Up That Music!

Sure, maybe I don’t feel like listening to music at the moment, but simply turning on the music and skipping songs until I find just the right one is exactly what I need. Bonus affect – turn on your Christmas tree lights. It definitely helps.

3. Make a Christmas/Winter Bucket List

I recently created a Fall Bucket List. I am often hesitant to do bucket lists for fear (for lack of a better word) that I will fail and not check anything off. However, the thing I’ve found about creating these lists is that it causes me to do SOMETHING, even if it’s just one or two items, instead of nothing at all. So, I keep making them!

I encourage you to get out a piece of paper and write down a minimum of 3 things you would like to do by the end of this month. It doesn’t have to be anything big or fancy, just something you think that would be fun. Ideas (which are also going on my list) would be to watch a certain holiday/Christmas movie, bake cookies – it can even be pre-made cookie dough if that seems too much, or drive around looking at Christmas lights. I don’t know about your city/town, but I’ve seen a lot more Christmas light displays this year!

4. Make a Thankful List

It’s easy to get caught up in things that are going on around you. When my feelings run away with me and I start feeling down, I like to make a list of things I’m thankful for and I start counting my blessings. I also do this when I’m feeling anxious. It really helps you see and appreciate what’s right in front of you and blessings you might not have really noticed before.

5. Read an Advent Devotional

I really enjoy Advent devotionals. It helps get my heart in the right place and helps me keep Jesus as the focus of the Christmas season. I’m reminded to calm my heart and mind and remember the reason why we celebrate.

If you download the YouVersion Bible app you can pick from a variety of plans. This is the one I am going through this season and I have really enjoyed it. There is an audio portion that gives it a special touch and I feel is really affective in calming and focusing my mind even more.

My favorite way to read my devotional is at night right before I go to bed with just the Christmas tree lights on.

I hope you know you’re not alone in this weird season of life and that maybe this list will help give you some ideas to still make it a special Christmas season.

Much Love,

Cami

P.S. I would love to know – what 3 things would you list on your holiday bucket list?

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here…

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ChristmasGiving

Christmas this year has felt a little different.  Usually I can’t wait to put on Christmas music, decorate the tree and buy new decorations, bake Christmas cookies, and buy gifts.  This year though, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve listened to Christmas music (listening to store music does’t count), I just haven’t been in the mood.  We put our tree up and there is even snow on the ground, but for some reason it still just doesn’t “feel” like Christmas.

It was really bothering me that I’m not in the Christmas spirit.  I felt like something must not be right in my heart, but then I realized that’s not true.  Although I haven’t been excited over the usual Christmas stuff, I have been more excited about giving to others.  This year was the first time we bought Toys for Tots, which was a lot of fun.  This year was the first year I got my family’s gifts in time (the package arrived this weekend!), and this year I was able to find really great stocking stuff for my husband.  These are the things I have been excited over, nothing else really, but thankfully these are the things that matter the most at Christmas.  Not the cookies, or the music, or the decorations. This year has been more about others and giving and spending time with the people I love.  Although this Christmas feels different, I’ve had a lot of joy – I’m very thankful for that.

I wish I had more exciting things to share, but this is what has been on my mind and heart this week.  I hope you have been having a wonderful Holiday season.  Much love to you all!

 

Currently – December Edition

/ Cami Grace / Leave a comment

tree

So here we are in December.  Usually things are crazy around the holidays, but thankfully things seem to be slowing down a bit…well, sort of.  We are getting settled into our cozy little house and we have been shopping away for Christmas (although, I’m worried our Christmas presents for extended family are going to be late *cringing face*). We also got our Christmas tree and decorations up, and might I add, we are severely lacking in the decoration department.  Definitely need to work on fixing that. ;)

Friday night was also my company’s Christmas party at Northern Quest Resort & Casino.  Let me tell you, our company knows how to throw a party! (even though I’m the one that does half the planning, they provide the funding for it, so it’s awesome).  It was full of fun door prizes, food, cocktails, and lots and lots of dancing.  Definitely the ingredients for a fun night. :)

Anyway, with December in full swing, here are my currently’s.

Currently Watching

Arrow.  We are taking a small break from Bones and trying to catch up on Arrow.  We dropped off somewhere around Season 2, so it’s been fun catching up.  I’m sure our break from Bones won’t last long though.

Also, I’ve been having fun watching all the random Christmas movies that are popping up all over the place on TV, love it! :)

Currently Reading

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by J.K. Rowling, and  “A Woman’s Walk with God – Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” by Elizabeth George.  I’ve been able to spend a little more time reading, but I need to wait on reading “Better than Before” by Gretchen Rubin.  It was taking far too long to read 3 books at the same time.  I seem to be handling 2 books okay, but it’s obviously still taking me longer to read than it would if I would just stick with one.

Currently Making/Baking

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!  I made this on Monday and it’s pretty yummy!  Thankfully we had friends over to help us eat it.  It’s far too dangerous to leave that whole loaf for just 2 people, haha.  You can find the recipe here.

You would think this is common sense, but make sure you have all the ingredients before you start.  I thought for sure I had baking soda, but aparently not.  There’s nothing more frustrating than having to run to the store in the middle of mixing half the ingredients together…seriously.

Current Obsession

Kathryn Morgan’s YouTube channel. :)  I’m enjoying her Vlogmas series.  It’s kinda fun to watch while I’m making dinner or doing the dishes, even if it’s just watching some of her old videos.  She also has some fun makeup tutorials and I love, love, love her ballet barre workouts and exercises.  You can view both of her channels here and here.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful December!  Be warm and stay safe out there!  :)