Sugar, Sparkles, and Festive Holiday Bulldogs

Happy Holidays dear readers! Christmas has exploded in the Lag Liv household. Sugar and sparkles and absurdly large doll houses are everywhere.

I spent yesterday making sweet Chex mix (this year with the addition of green and red candy melt drizzles on top in lieu of the dreaded Santa hats), savory Chex mix (which, for the first time ever, went wrong and I had to throw out an entire huge gorgeous batch because everything was mushy and it was devastating), a double batch of homemade cinnamon rolls (new recipe this year!), and a double batch of my great grandma's sugar cookie dough. I canceled my Orangetheory workout midway through because I decided baking counted as my cardio.

We took Maggie on a walk in the middle so she could work off some of the sugar fumes.

Then I made dinner (this vegan lentil stew, which was great) and James and I spent 4 hours putting together this insane dollhouse I bought for Cora from my grandparents' Christmas money. Every year they very generously give each kid $100 and every year I try to pick out one big, substantive thing that the kids can know came from their great-grandparents. This year I got this ridiculous $300 5-foot tall dollhouse on sale for $99 at Target on Black Friday and I had to remind James at 11 p.m. that when faced with three options, he told me to get the big one.

Big one indeed.

At midnight we dragged it into our master bathroom and closed the door to hide it. We still had to assemble Claire's bike and the tiny doll furniture and we just could not.

But, at 10 a.m. when everything was assembled and we did the big unveiling of the great-grandparent gifts we were NOT dragging to our Colorado Christmas, it was a HUGE hit.

By far the most absurd thing we've ever brought into the house, but I'm kind of sad we never got the kids one of those ridiculous power wheel cars I always wanted growing up and Cora is 6 so if we were ever going to go full dollhouse, we needed to go for it now.

(Also Claire got a new bike - 24"! because her legs grew 2" in the last 6 months - and Landon a new scooter because we realized he probably needed an upgrade from the razor we bought him when he was 4 that he totally still rides around on, and a stack of new books, because I am a bargain shopper and Target had great sales this November.)

And 6 hours later, Cora is still playing with it, now with some fairies, two princess Barbies, four Spirit horses, a troll doll, and some big people kitchen food. Meanwhile, I pressed on to roll and bake the sugar cookies for decorating later tonight. And, when I pulled the pictures off my phone to make this post I discovered that one of my kids must have snapped a picture while I was doing it. Judging from the height, I'm guessing Cora?

I look so focused. And tall. 😂

My parents are on their way here, stopping for the night on their way up to Colorado to begin their Christmas stay in the mountains. But let's go back, way back, to the Sunday after Thanksgiving and before we left for Atlanta - back to when our Lag Liv family Christmas first kicked off

with matching pj's and double tree decorating.

This is Maggie's first Christmas and we're all taking it very seriously.

This year we attempted to decorate while watching The Santa Clause, but it quickly became obvious that no one could focus when tempted by a movie they've seen 15 times, so back to the Raffi Christmas album we went. We did the silver and gold living room tree first, and then the colorful family tree in the TV room. Cora, as always, took her ornament placement very seriously while Landon and Claire went more for speed than finesse.

I do so love having them sparkle in our house all month.

Then on Tuesday, the night before we left for Atlanta, I taught my barre class and then went straight to the TCU tree lighting, a now very important part of our holiday season. On my way to teach I'd dropped the kids off at friends' houses who took them to dinner and then met us there.

As always, I'm so grateful for my village. (James was coaching.)

There's always hot chocolate and cookies and the big tree and a great fireworks show and live band and this year, there was snow!

It's a good time. Then we jetted off to Atlanta and I came back to lots of work and testimony and meetings and 600 emails. Our office is still under renovation, so when I don't have to be present for a meeting, I'm working from home with this dedicated colleague.

Even when the hours are long and her head gets heavy, she's here. Offering love and steadfast support (and finding somewhere to rest her head).

I worked Sunday afternoon and Monday morning to prep my exhibits for Wednesday testimony and then my mom drove in to attend Landon's spelling bee Tuesday morning! It worked out great to send my exhibit list off to my paralegal and then take off the afternoon to spend time with her. At the clearance dillards of course. As always we had a blast trying on a thousand things, but at the end of the adventure, I walked our with a single pair of red suede heels for $12 and I love them dearly.

On Tuesday morning we were up early to wish our speller the best of luck and then meet him at school. I could tell he was a little nervous. He won at his elementary school last year, and then got a surprise 2nd at Districts, so he *really* wanted to win again and move on to Districts for another shot at the Area Bee. Last year's Districts winner (who went on to win the Area Bee and go to DC!) was in 8th grade so she's aged out now, but now he's in 6th grade with several elementary schools combined, so who knows. It was nerve-wracking and stressful, as the parent, to watch him handle how much the Bee had come to meant to him and how much he wanted to do well!

And then- after 17 rounds against an initial 22 competitors, he won the 6th grade Bee!

We were so thrilled for him. And now we get to study a whole new giant packet of thousands of words! I always wonder if we're the only parents who heavy-sigh every night when he asks us to quiz him on a few pages, but I promise we're mostly supportive.

Maggie, of course, would read him all the words for hours and hours if she could.

My mom headed home after the Bee for her own last day of teaching (both my parents are retired as of the end of this month!) and I went to the office to get my box of exhibits to bring home to review and craft my outline. I worked very late, and then at 1 a.m. when I was about to go to bed I remembered I needed to put together the PTA Middle School e-mail newsletter I am somehow in charge of doing that goes out every Wednesday morning, so I dragged myself back to the table to get that done and scheduled to send out in the morning. The night before I was up until midnight completing compliance videos I didn't know I needed to do for TCU. Gotta love how even when you do everything early- house decorated, Christmas cards out, all gifts bought and wrapped, teacher gifts ready, etc., something pops up to steal your sleep and sparkle. But everything got done and this is just why I try to do everything that matters to me nice and early, when I'm excited about it and nothing is in the way, because I'd hate for the things I love to feel like a chore.

And then I got a friends dinner out on Thursday and a fancy dinner date night with James on Friday (in my new red shoes!) and all is well.

Happiest holidays to you all and I hope you are able to do the things that bring you joy amidst all the holiday (or just work/life) craziness. And always know that Maggie wishes you the very jolliest of holidays, every day.

(And/or the soundest of holidays snoozes.)