A Beautiful Season //December 2024 + News For 2025

I don't know how your December was but mine felt like the perfect mix of activities and rest. Not too full, but also it wasn't like I just did the same old things every week. It was really, really nice. I hope yours was too, even if it was busier than mine :)

          Things I've Been Loving

• My Christmas music. I enjoy my time with it and I play it so much that I'm usually done by Epiphany. It's a system that works well for me.
  
• Delicious food. Am I eating way too much and most of it is not good for me? Yes. But I'm enjoying it immensely.
  
• Relaxing days. I like having a slow December.
  
• The Baxters show. Got to watch this when we had a free Prime trial and I was impressed at how closely it resembled the books! (Not for children or teens).
  

                  My Bookshelf

• Christmas At Sugar Plum Manor by Roseanna M. White. A Christmas delight inspired by The Nutcracker.
  
• Across The Ages by Gabrielle Meyers. Best one since book one!
  
• Of Gold & Shadows by Michelle Griep. Very fun concept!
  
• The Road To Paradise by Karen Barnett. Someone else made me aware of this book and I'm glad I read it.
  

Surprisingly, I got all my goals accomplished and didn't have that many extra things pop up. The cookie decorating with my nieces and nephews changed to making graham cracker houses but the idea stayed the same. It was chaos and fun! The movie night with the girls was small, only four girls came, but it ended up being just right. They all liked the movie and then we had some great discussion afterward.

I read Deck The Halls (And Bring A Hammer) and my new Christmas book, Christmas At Sugar Plum Manor. I tend to keep my "must-do" traditions to a minimum but both of these are short and will be something I read each year.

What else? A friend hosted a game night at her condo, our Bible study had a Christmas party (we sang by candlelight, something I've never done before), and I got to have lunch with a friend that we've been trying to make happen for MONTHS! I also started watching again a little boy I used to watch and this time I have his sister too! They are so much fun.

And, I did get started on Substack! I will be sending out my first newsletter through there at the beginning of January and I'm hoping to figure out a way to send my blog posts each week with that system.

Speaking of blogs... I have news!

In 2025, I am taking a break, not only from Instagram, but also blogging for the month of January. When I return, I am only going to be blogging ONCE a week, on Mondays. Sessions will be blogged as usual and if there is something I want to throw in occasionally, I will, but what I am trying this year is to blog one day and then do other content based on that blog post. In an ideal world, this will look like:

• Monday - Blog post
• Tuesday - IG post
• Wednesday - behind the scenes/show my face/editing
• Thursday - LinkedIn & Pinterest
• Friday - Reel

I'm still planning to keep going with sharing quotes, books, and questions on my Stories. There are a few goals with this plan. For one thing, I hope it will help me keep my creative well from draining too much. Another thing is getting my face on Stories and making Reels more often. And lastly, I need more time to work on the family business accounts, so I need to simplify what I'm doing over here.

I hope you have a wonderful January and I will be back in February with all my usual beginning of the year stuff. If you want to hear from me in the meantime, join my email list and you'll get a Substack in about a week! Happy New Year!

This and the weird fruits below were Adventure Challenges.

This will end up being slightly higher :) Yes, I'm insane.