Skip to main content

Hello December

After dropping my kids back at school after break, I decided to use my couple of hours while M is at preschool to enjoy the quiet house, exercise, catch up on laundry, and then spend some time planning the month next to the tree with Christmas music playing. Were there other things I could have done? Yes. Did we return home to a plumbing problem that will require appointments and reshuffling? Also yes. But while I waited for the plumber to call back, it was nice to take some time to look ahead to a month with all the festive things coming up and wrap my mind around what’s coming up.

Big Events this month:
*Feast of the 7 Fishes--we got inspired watching this excellent holiday movie and have hosted some friends over to cook way too much seafood after the kids go to bed. This year I think my friend is going to come down from LA to join, which I’m super excited about.
*Hanukkah--we are an interfaith family, so we do Hanukkah and Christmas. Hanukkah is actually a relatively minor celebration in the Jewish calendar, so this is not as much as it sounds. I need to talk to Joel about how many nights of presents we want to have for the girls, and this will mainly look like having a few friends over to enjoy Trader Joe’s latkes and play dreidel, lighting the menorah every night, and going out for donuts one night.
*Seeing the Grinch and the Nutcracker with A.
*Going to a family Christmas party that my mom’s side of the family has hosted for about 80 years. This is my absolute favorite family party, and I look forward to it every year. Santa comes, there’s lots of good food and family we don’t see often, and it’s so special to have my kids experience the party the same way I remember it.
*Christmas Eve & Christmas Day--We spend the night at my parent’s house to celebrate with both sides of the family and cut driving time. Plus the girls like to open presents with their grandparents in the morning.
*My 36th birthday
*Palm Springs trip with Joel’s family over New Years.

Habits I Want to Keep Up:
*Strength Training 3 x weekly
*Reading (always)
*Finance tracking 1/week
*No internet browsing on my phone

Projects:
*Holiday gifts--I’m hoping to do this earlier and avoid using Amazon as much as possible.
*Set up monthly giving--rollover goal
*Declutter toys in the living room (ideally this would be in the whole house, but I don’t think that’s going to happen).

What are you looking forward to this month? If you celebrate any December holidays, do you have any favorite traditions?
Labels:

Comments

  1. NicoleDecember 1, 2025 at 11:41 AM

    Did you ever watch The Bear? I got super bored in Season 3 but in Season 2 there is a VERY intense episode that involves the feast of the seven fishes, and I cannot hear that without thinking about it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JDecember 1, 2025 at 7:26 PM

      YES, I was thinking that too. Didn’t Jamie Lee Curtis win an Emmy for that episode? Or a Golden Globe? If not, she should have. It was WILD.

      Delete
    2. SamDecember 2, 2025 at 1:01 PM

      Yes! That episode is really crazy. I recommend the movie if you want a much calmer, sweeter Christmas vibe. I agree re: The Bear season 3. We skipped season 3, and went straight to season 4 and as far as I can tell we missed basically nothing important.

      Delete
  2. ErnieDecember 1, 2025 at 5:42 PM

    My birthday is in December too. 12/30. We have some up in the air chats in the works- who is gonna host for each side. It’s been a tad stressful. My sibs are more focused on whether or not we move our folks from their house to assisted living.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SamDecember 2, 2025 at 1:07 PM

      I'm sorry to hear it's been stressful--seems like a complicated decision.

      Delete
  3. JDecember 1, 2025 at 7:32 PM

    I like your planner, would be fun to look back at it in the future. I have a month at a glance type planner, and I keep them all. I don’t look at them often, but I enjoy doing it sometimes.

    We are a no faith family, and we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas because celebrating = fun. In our house Hanukkah means a menorah every night, and gifts the first night. Also latkes. Christmas is with family, my husband’s family. My family is far and traveling during the holidays sucks and is so expensive, so we don’t do it.

    I have my birthday in December too, but I’m a lot older than you. I’m turning 60 this year. My photo that pops up is from my honeymoon when I was 27, in 1993.

    For monthly giving, if it’s a rollover goal, perhaps make tomorrow (Giving Tuesday) the day to do it! If you’re not sure how much you want to give, or where, you could start with a local food bank and give them $5 or $10. Increase if and when you feel able. I give small amounts like this to about 10 organizations, so when anyone else asks for a donation, I feel like I’m pretty much tapped out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SamDecember 2, 2025 at 12:59 PM

      We sat down and figured this out last night!

      Delete
  4. Life of a Doctor's WifeDecember 2, 2025 at 10:54 AM

    We are also an interfaith family (although not observant of anything, really), and I love Trader Joe's latkes. So easy and tasty! I'm sorry to hear about the plumbing issue. Hoping it was relatively simple and inexpensive to address.

    ReplyDelete
  5. StephanyDecember 2, 2025 at 8:00 PM

    We have lots of great Christmas traditions that I'm excited to get around to in December. My best friend's kids are doing dance this year and they have a holiday recital in a few weeks that I CANNOT WAIT FOR. It's going to be amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. SanDecember 5, 2025 at 5:23 PM

    I love the holiday season and I am looking forward to some of the traditions (e.g. cookie baking, a walk around the "Fabulous 40s" here in Sacramento - it's an old neighborhood with big houses and amazing Christmas decor, people flock there during the holiday season from all over, knitting, reading by the fireplace)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's Saving My Life: Sick Kid Edition

As I wrote yesterday, one of my daughters got sick, and so we didn’t make it to our camping trip! I had a really good attitude about it for most of the day and mostly felt grateful that she got sick at home and not 2 hours away, in the desert, where we would have to completely takedown a campsite before leaving. But by the afternoon, I was feeling a little grumpy and bummed to miss an adventure we’d been looking forward to and also cooped up from being inside all day with a kid who wasn’t feeling well. Inspired by San’s recent “Five Things That are Saving My Life Right Now” post, I decided to make my own list that was specific to sick days at home. In no particular order: *Emkfit videos on youtube. It’s awesome to have such a fun, silly, sweaty workout to do. I always feel happier having done the dance videos, and it really helps my mood on days when I’m at home a lot and restless *Good books. I posted earlier this week that October was not the best reading month for me, and so I spen...
11 comments
Read more

Adventures Big & Small

     Photos from a recent adventure       I just started listening to Tranquility by Tuesday  by Laura Vanderkam, and one of the ideas she mentioned was planning 2 adventures each week: one big and one small. As I was listening to her describe the rule, I thought about what I had planned this week and realized that I had a few adventures planned without thinking of them in that way. It really helped shift my mindset to realize that I do have some fun and novel things planned, and I'm curious to experiment with adding this to the routine, particularly as we are settling into a new city. I feel like I've plateaued a bit the last few weeks even though things are finally starting to feel settled down. I hit a point where I missed our Colorado friends and my old job, even if I feel like this move and taking time to be at home is right for us in the long run. Thinking through new adventures in this new phase of life is a way to balance some of this feel...
1 comment
Read more

Toddler Travel--Road Trip Edition

      So happy to be writing from Southern California after our road trip out from Colorado. It has been so nice to see family and enjoy cooler weather and time at the beach. This was far and away the longest Avi has ever been in the car, and it was definitely less relaxing to drive long distances with a toddler, but it actually went better than I thought it would.      I love road trips, so I'm happy that this is something we can look forward to lots more of as a family.  In case anyone else is planning to travel with their little one(s), I thought I would share a few things we did that helped, and a few things I wished we did differently. Tips:  *Bring various activities that can be easily done from a car seat. I brought some of Avi's favorite toys including: a toy she could buckle and unbuckle, a chunky beads and thread kit, and a paint with water set from Melissa and Doug's . I also brought bubbles which were a big hit although we left them in...
Post a Comment
Read more