Backwards, Forwards, and Upwards!

Well hello there, welcome to 2026.

I will just say at the start that I have been horrified by the brutal ICE/Gestapo actions against US citizens in Minnesota and at the senseless murder of Renee Good and I am so proud of how Minnesotans have responded and stood up for their neighbors and I don't know how to dive into a recap without acknowledging the thing that has dominated my mind and heart so much so far this year.

Living in a dystopian universe is weird and hard and draining, even when things in your tiny part of it are quite good. I'm just in my office answering 600 emails a day while my tax dollars pay for masked and armed incels to tear apart a midwestern city and beat its people. Yeah. So.

I guess let's settle in and go back to December.

As has become our tradition, we scheduled a Festive Forced Family Fun Time lock-in to do all of our beloved Christmas traditions. Thanks to Landon's national meet, we weren't able to do our lock-in until the kids got out of school, basically minutes before the holidays would actually descend up on us.

On Saturday, December 20th I made two double batches of my great grandma's sugar cookies (one with gluten-free flour, definitely not part of the Swedish farm life tradition!), we cleaned the house to get ready for our guests, I rolled, cut, and baked about 8 dozen cookies, we ate chili for dinner, we went to the Arboretum 12 Days of Christmas exhibit, and then we came home and decorated cookies!

It was quite a day. And I'm delighted to report that the gluten-free version of the cookies was very good! Maybe a tiny bit grainier feeling in the mouth than the traditional white flour, but still - very, very good. It was a true relief to me as I don't think Christmas can happen without me eating a dozen sugar cookies at once after work while standing over the sink.

And then, once I ate too many cookies, and worked about 12 hours on Monday, December 22nd, Christmas was here!

My whole family arrived on Tuesday the 23rd. My parents, brother, sister-in-law, their 4-year-old twins, my sister, brother-in-law, and their 3 girls (ages 9, 6, and 4), plus my regular crew of 5, would be Christmassing it up in our house for 3 days!

It was THE BEST. Every adult couple had a room with a queen bed and their own full bathroom and we all took responsibility for a meal. We took the first one after everyone arrived and had our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant cater fajitas. It was delicious and the Coloradans were very excited about the queso.

It was obnoxiously warm out, but it did make it easy to eat outside, heat the pool a bit, and let the kids swim!

My brother and sister-in-law handled breakfast on the 24th, making a ton of delicious food that we somehow entirely consumed over the next 2 days. I had purchased the coolest coloring page tablecloth from Target and that was a hit for a while. We walked to the park and the lake, played basketball on the church lot next door, and swam a LOT. Even I swam! A Christmas miracle.

The last time we hosted I collected the kids phones and devices and hid them in a bin in the garage for the three days my family was here. This year I told them we'd be doing that again, but they promised they would only use them at night when the cousins (and grandparents!) were in bed. And they did! I never once saw a phone out when the sun was up or people were around and it's almost depressing how much of a difference it makes for ALL of us in how much we interact. It's the downtime. The quiet moments between events or meals when you're just hanging around each other. Instead of retreating to our individual cells (literally), there's little conversations that happen. More laughter. More card games. More stories. It's remarkable and it's the best Christmas gift.

As longtime readers know, Christmas Eve is our big event - it's our big meal and it's when we open all the presents. We don't do church anymore, but my sister and I wanted to build some new traditions, so we decided we'd dress up, do a fancy meal, and carol. I told my family this a couple weeks beforehand and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Guess what guys! We're going to dress up for Christmas Eve dinner this year!
Claire: Um, okay.
Landon; Ugh, how much?
Me: And we're going to go caroling!
Claire: Oh my god, OUTSIDE?!
Landon: I would literally rather die.

I ordered a Christmas song book on Etsy and printed out lots of copies. We joked to Landon throughout the day that he needed to get ready for our caroling outside. I set the table with our wedding china and crystal (Can you believe we registered for and received 12, 4-piece settings of crystal glasses for our wedding when we were babies in 2005 and we took them all to our tiny 1.5 bedroom Chicago apartment? This was the first time I ever used them!) and place cards.

We got dressed and began to gather. My sister pulled me aside and said, "Billy and I were talking... we're not sure if we want to go door to door?" "What?!!" I exclaimed, "we're just singing in the house!" "Ohhhh," my sister said. "When Billy and I were talking earlier he was like, 'I don't really want to go door to door, but I guess if that's what Rebecca says we're doing, we will?...'" He'd heard us joking with Landon and thought we were serious. I was dying laughing and love them both very much.

We sang cheerfully and entirely in our living room, and then sat down for a delicious meal prepared by my parents.

Everyone helped clean up dinner and we all got dressed in our pj's and cozy clothes- it was time for presents!

We go in order of age, youngest to oldest (Wade was born a couple minutes after Zoe, so he starts!), and it was so fun. Everyone got good and thoughtful things, including, oh yes, the PHOTO BOOKS! I got them done again this year and it always feels like a miracle.

The night ended with putting cookies our for Santa, and then the adults all becoming Santa and pulling gifts out of secret boxes left in the cars/sleighs that brought them here. Christmas morning was a bleary delight. Happy cousins, mild chaos, and a delicious brunch prepared by my sister. James gave Claire a budget for my stocking and she picked out some great stuff, and somehow almost everyone got Legos and there was a lot of Lego-maniac'ing at the kitchen table.

There was more swimming, we went to the park, the men all went fishing (Landon got a new pole and some fishing stuff for Christmas) at the lake... my parents and brother and family headed home in the afternoon and then my sister and family stayed for more swimming, a movie, and a lot of leftovers before heading back to Colorado the next morning.

I woke up to a house that felt very empty with only five of us and took 2 naps that day. It was honestly the very best Christmas. I just can't imagine a better 2.5 days and I'm so glad we can comfortably fit everyone and we can all be together, especially for Landon's senior year.

Speaking of babies and memories and special things, at the start of their stay, my parents presented me with this very special gift!

Not everyone will get it, but it made me tear up. My mom always talks about the happiest memories from when we lived in Los Angeles and we listened to the Sesame Street Christmas album (the record!) over and over and OVER again. I was Big Bird for Halloween. I drove my Big Bird bigwheel down the sidewalks of our Lakewood LA neighborhood like I owned the place.

My Big Bird will be treasured for years to come.

We put Christmas away on the 28th. I love love love our Christmas house, but I also love when our regular house is back. I got myself this lamp as a Christmas gift. She sits on my desk in my home office and I love it so much. Reminds me of my Grandma Jo.

Claire got this jellycat turtle because he makes the exact frowny face she does.

Cora got a built-in desk for her room and she LOVES it. There's room for all her tiny treasures and will grow with her through middle and high school.

Landon continues to help me work anytime I'm working from home at night.

He's currently in Santa Barbara on a recruiting trip for UCSB and he's very very happy.

Meanwhile our Life360 family circle looks like this and I don't like it at all.

But let's go back to December. On the 30th I got my real present-- a breast lift!

My sister had a breast reduction in November and it has changed her life. She went from about a K to a D and she could not be happier. At a DD, I didn't feel like I needed a reduction (though I'm no longer sure I wouldn't have thought that was worth it), but I did hate that I always had to wear a fairly industrial bra. This was especially annoying in summer when it's one million degrees out and I want to wear something open-back or with thin straps and I can't because my reactive skin can't handle any type of strapless bra situation (and my chest is too big/heavy anyway). My sister mentioned a lift is a thing and I immediately got to googling! I consulted with an amazing surgeon in Dallas and she told me that with a lift I'd go down about a half size, which I thought sounded perfect. She could also even me out while she lifted me up.

In my consult she showed me where my breasts would be post-surgery and commented how much the change seemed to narrow my waist and you guys, she was so right. It was like magic. I always thought I was short-waisted, but turns out, I was just long-boobed! I had kids pretty young and I just don't think I ever really knew what my adult proportions could be.

The surgery went well- I love anesthesia, and I was home in the afternoon on the 30th (I did have a bad reaction to the pain medicine and got super dizzy; James had to carry me upstairs). I napped and took slow walks that evening, slept surprisingly well, and only took Tylenol starting that next morning. I took a lot of walks and did lymphatic massage at the suggestion of my surgeon and I think it helped tremendously with my bruising and recovery. The cats also helped.

I was back at work on Monday January 5th. I was stil pretty swollen in this picture, but I do think you can already see my new proportions and I LOVE THEM. Merry Christmas to me!

Work has been crazy busy since I returned, which is honestly really wonderful. I still have to wear my zip-front sports bra, so I've been all about the sweater, and James got me these beautiful earrings for Christmas.

I also got myself this pair of sneakers on the right below and Claire was horrified when I opened them but I love them and got so many compliments at work the next when I wore them!

And that's where we're at! I'm feeling good. Landon is still in Santa Barbara, Claire is at a Swet 16 party for a friend, and Cora is here with James and me watching a movie together on the couch.

I'm going to sleep better tonight knowing I finally got a blog post out - I do miss doing it, and hearing from you all, when I don't write. Funny enough, it was this blog coming up on a work call this week that had me finally sitting down with my laptop and my photos and my stories.

I was on a call with a group of lawyers I'd never met from an AmLaw20 firm. They are representing an auditor in an SEC investigation where I'm repping the company. At the start of the call we were making introductions and one of the partners says, "Oh! You're the one who has the travel blog?" "What?" I said, "No I don't." And he said, "yeah! We did your trip to Arches National Park a few years ago. A bunch of people from our firm have taken your trips!"

I guess my links got passed around a couple years ago and many people took inspiration. I was cracking up. If getting people to plan great vacations and take their kids with them is my legacy, I'll take it. Who knew a non-sponsored, very clunky old school intermittent blog could have such power. I am truly honored. Now I really need to go finish those South Africa posts before we head somewhere new!