How was your December? Ours was a whirlwind, and also wonderful (minus the whack-a-mole game we were playing with illness in our home all month). I’m recapping the month a day early because it felt wrong to recap December of 2025 in a whole new year. I cannot explain why this feels wrong to me while I usually have no problem recapping a month after it has already wrapped. Why is December different? I wish I could say. . . OCD is a strange thing, my friends; the logic is rarely rational. And on that quirky note, here is a look back at December—one I truly want to remember!
|| READING LATELY ||
This morning I finished my year-long read through the Bible; it was such a joy to have Luke and Charleston along for the ride this year, too. We supplemented our reading by listening to The Bible Recap podcast and also reading the The Bible Recap book, which is a condensed version of the podcast in written form. I cannot say enough good things about this book and HIGHLY recommend getting yourself a copy if you are planning to read through the Bible in the coming year (something else that I highly recommend!).
We read through this Advent devotional as a family this year and really loved it. The book features 25 devotionals, beginning in Genesis and leading up to Jesus’ birth, and each day is accompanied by a gorgeous illustration behind a lift-the-flap page. The hardcover book, which features board book style pages, is one of the most beautiful Advent books I’ve ever seen and the devotionals are child-appropriate but theologically solid. The book is such a welcome addition to our growing collection of Advent books!
On my own, I did a reread of this unconventional Advent devotional that offers an unvarnished take on the incarnation of Christ. The content is edgy, bordering on sacrilegious, and that bothered me more with this reread (I have gotten more conservative in my theology since I first read this devotional a few years ago), but I can’t deny the book’s ability to reframe my understanding of the Christmas story and connect with its starring attraction in a whole new way.
In addition to the dozens of Christmas picture books we read as a family this season, we read this illustrated version of The Christmas Carol. It was my second time reading this classic Dickens story and I enjoyed it even more this time through, for both the incredible prose and sheer magnificence of the story; the many retellings are great, but they’re no match for the original. I was surprised and delighted by my kids’ enthusiasm for the story: they each gave it 4.5 or 5 stars! The illustrations in this version definitely helped to keep them engaged, and reading a few kid-friendly versions of the story before and after made the 1843 tale more accessible.
In non-Christmas reading this month (of which there wasn’t much) I read this frothy campus novel and this humorous and heartwarming family story. I also listened to this powerful reflection on the book of Acts and this helpful parenting book. Per usual, reviews will be shared in a Quick Lit post next Thursday.
|| WATCHING LATELY ||
We took the kids to see Young David, which follows the early years of the life of David. I was really impressed! The animation and music are great, and while the movie doesn’t follow the Biblical narrative exactly, it covers a lot of key stories and helps make sense of some of the Old Testament narrative that can be difficult to follow. The film offers an especially good portrayal of King Saul’s mental illness and conflicted relationship with David, and the filmmakers did a good job of conveying the violence surrounding David without making the film unnecessarily gruesome or frightening.
Young David is both entertaining AND educational. I appreciated the overarching themes of God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness in the midst of our struggles, and I really loved that portions of the Psalms are woven into the dialogue and musical lyrics. I wish we had gotten more of the character of Jonathan (one of my favorite Biblical figures) and his friendship with the anointed king, but that is one small quibble in what is an excellent movie. We’ve really entered into a golden age of Christian art, and I am grateful for movies like this one are not just “safe,” family-friendly alternatives to the inappropriate movies and TV being put out by secular sources, but are actually Bible-based, teaching strong Christian themes and bringing the Bible to life for viewers of all ages.
Our kids were all totally into this one, and on our way out of the theater I heard a group of preteens exclaiming, “I thought that would be boring, but it was REALLY good.” Endorsements don’t get much better than that!
My Rating: 4.5 Stars!
After many years of reading and hearing glowing reviews for The Man Who Invented Christmas, Luke and I finally watched this biographical story about Charles Dickens as he conceives and writes A Christmas Carol. And we both loved it! And after previewing, we had the kids all watch it too and they enjoyed it as well.
I have no idea whether or not the movie is remotely historically accurate, but I loved the film’s portrayal of of A Christmas Carol coming to life in Dickens’ imagination, with life circumstances, family members, companions, and even strangers playing into the tale that would come to define the holiday. The movie is a wonderful blend of Dickens’ actual life and the novel he creates, adding a fresh new twist to the beloved Christmas story. The Victorian period elements are magnificent, and I was supremely impressed with the acting. My one complaint is that the film doesn’t seem sure if it wants to be a comedy or drama, and at times the humor verges on cheesy. Mostly, though, this was a sheer delight and one I am happily adding to our regular Christmas viewing rotation. Watching this just after reading the original novella made for an even better viewing experience.
My Rating: 5 Stars.
|| LISTENING LATLEY ||
I don’t listen to much music throughout most of the year, but in December I can’t get enough of Christmas music and have it playing at every opportunity. This Christmas, our most-listened-to album was Tommee Profitt’s The Birth of a King. The album features incredible full-orchestra renditions of all of my favorite Christmas songs. It’s like the very best movie soundtrack, but make it Christmas, and I honestly want to keep listening to it all year long even though the holiday is over.
And some podcasts that informed and inspired this month:
ReFocus with Jim Daley—Serving and Loving Others with God’s Kindness
The Natasha Crain Podcast—Transgender Atheist to Detransitioning Christian: Tyger’s Story
The Rubin Report—A Radically Different Approach to Raising Kids with Autism | Leland Vittert
|| MONTHLY KID-ISMS ||
CHARLIE-ISMS
+ “Why is name calling described as ‘verbal battles?’ Shouldn’t it be noun-al battles?”
+ “I’m kind of losing track of all our traditions. But I like them. It’s the small things that matter to us.”
+ “I overheard someone talking about that.” Sully: “What does overheard mean?” Charleston: “It’s like eavesdropping but it doesn’t sound wrong.”
SULLY-ISMS
+ When I talked about growing up with one brother. “Wow, that’s just two kids for Oma and Opa. Maybe they’ll have more children. Probably not, though. They’re already really old and that might be weird.”
+ “Did our friend get her babies yet?” Me: “Yes, the twins were born today.” Sully: ” Today! Wow, congratulations, that’s good news!”
+ After pick-up at the Y: “I made thousands of millions of new friends. Like, three! Well, four, but I forgot what that one’s name was.”
+ “My lowest favorite number is twelve. And my middlest favorite number is thirty. My biggest favorite number is one thousand five hundred million googleplex.”
+ “Do some people have a baby before they get married? Does the nectar still come from the man because they hang out a lot with each other?”
+ When Luke was listening to a rock version of O Come Emmanuel, not knowing that for years Luke and I have had a debate about whether or not rock is “good” music (I hate it): “Why does it sound like an eeeeevil song?” Mama felt so proud.
+ To Nico: “You’re really special because you’re the youngest and the cutest. Well, we’re all really cute…”
+ “When I’m an archaeologist I will probably only work one day per week because I’ll be working, like, the whole day!”
KALI-ISMS
+ “When I grow up I think I want to be a cheerleader.” Collin (her cousin): “What team are you going to cheer for?” Kali: “The green one.” (To my knowledge she has never watched a professional sporting event, nor does she know what sport she’d like to cheer for. I guess if the team is green, it doesn’t really matter!)
+ “What are they called, the different people who go camping all the time? They’re somewhere else, not in Texas. Oh yeah, they’re called Indians.”
+ Out of the blue at dinner one night, she exclaimed in exasperation: “There’s so many things you can be when you’re a grown up! I just don’t understand!”
+ She has taken to calling her brothers “Dude” which absolutely cracks me up. I have no idea where she picked this up.
NICO-ISMS
At sixteen months, Nico still isn’t walking, which officially makes him at least the third latest walker in our family (Kali and Charleston both walked at 15 months; Sully walked at 20 months so Nico still has time to beat him). But he is chatting up a STORM.
+ He can repeat (or tries to) almost anything we say and the kids love having him say the funniest words.
+ Favorite words that he’s saying unprompted these days are toe, shoes, nose, door (he points to the door any time someone leaves a room and he wants to follow), paper, night-night, and diaper.
+ He often points to his diaper and says diaper asking for a change. Sometimes he will do this when he’s in his high chair because he knows it’s a ticket out of the chair. Usually this is just a ploy and the diaper is dry.
+ He pointed just below Luke’s belt and exclaimed, “diaper!”
|| HAPPENINGS & HIGHLIGHTS ||
Our Advent traditions are always a highlight of our Christmas season, and per tradition we mixed it up with a little sacred and a little secular. Each Sunday night of Advent, we lit a candle on our wreath and did a small devotional provided by the kids’ program at our church. And for each night leading up to Christmas, we read from our Advent devotional, flipped one of our Advent blocks, added to our magnetic Advent tree, and opened a flap on our Lego calendar. Our three kids rotated through the three countdowns; we will need to add a fourth something next year when Nico is ready to participate! This year, adding to our usual Advent traditions, my parents sent a daily video with little Christ-focused Advent activities for the kids to do, and it was SUCH a fun way to celebrate the season across the miles.
Our small town doesn’t have an annual Tree Lighting ceremony, so we attended the lighting in nearby Cedar Park. It was drizzly but still festive, and the kids enjoyed decorating cookies and seeing the 400-year-old oak tree lit with bright lights.
Luke took Charleston and Sully on a Trail Life campout and Kali, Nico and I had a fun Girls (+Nico) weekend! We watched some Christmas movies, went out to eat, attended a friend’s Christmas play, and went to the Christmas Stroll in nearby Georgetown. A highlight of that event was a Bethlehem reenactment complete with fabric dying, perfume making, barley grinding, carpentry demonstrations, Jewish games and dances, and the sweetest live nativity scene. It was such a fun way to bring the Bible to life!
We made our annual trek to the North Pole Bass Pro Shop for pictures with Santa. Kali had been throwing up the night before but rallied for pics and managed to pull off some cute ones, though her not feeling well kept us from making an event of the visit like we usually do.
Kali was too sick to go to the Bethlehem village this year, but Luke and the big boys had lots of fun walking through a recreation of first-century Bethlehem. It’s such a cool experience and I hope that everyone stays healthy next year so that we can all go!
The next day, Luke stayed home with sick Kali while the boys and I went to the Liberty Hill Christmas festival in our little downtown square. The boys enjoyed a snowball fight and some ice skating, and it was fun to see all the vendors and even ride a train.
We had our awards ceremonies for both AHG and Trail Life this month. The twins earned their joiner awards and all of the kids earned some badges. It was fun to celebrate our kiddos and to be inspired by accomplishments of the older kids; it’s a window into what is ahead for us in the scouting life, and it has me excited!
We got to go Christmas caroling with our AHG and Trail Life troops as well as other members from our host church—nearly one hundred men, women, and kids in all. It was one of my favorite things we did this Christmas season! I have never been Christmas caroling in a neighborhood before, and it was so festive to wander the streets, knocking on doors and treating the homeowners to a song. We sounded terrible—definitely off key, and rarely even singing at the same pace—but we had a good time and definitely did our part to spread some Christmas cheer.
Christmas lights rank neck-in-neck with Christmas music for my favorite part of the season, so we make it a point to see plenty of them throughout December. We went to a drive-through Light Park that the kids just loved (me too!). And a few nights before Christmas, we loaded into the truck for a drive around town scouting out the best-decorated neighborhoods and checking off items on our Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt.
Two days before Christmas, Charleston hosted his second annual Christmas Festival complete with games, decorations, and a viewing of the movie that he’d worked all month to create. The festival was cute, and the movie (The Bests’ Christmas Movie) was great! Charleston had written the script and did the filming and editing on our family ipad, and the twins served as actors—royals “Christmas Is-the Best” and “Holidays Are-the Best” (get it?) who must set off in search of their special blueprints that were stolen by a Christmas Tree thief. I was so proud of how they all worked together to create something fun for us all to enjoy!
We followed up the family Christmas Festival with our holiday baking. This year we made snickerdoodles, dark chocolate M&M cookies, and gingerbread cutouts. Baking with all the kids in the kitchen is a huge challenge and I was thankful Luke was able to help out! (Note: everyone agreed that those gingerbread cookies are their favorite cookies EVER; the recipe is definitely a keeper!)
On Christmas Eve, we made our gingerbread houses! We got a kit this year with four mini houses, and we agreed that next year we will go back to decorating one bigger house as a family, but it was still a fun tradition. Nico enjoyed stacking sprinkles (and snacking on the occasional marshmallow) while we built.
Luke and Charleston had to leave early on the afternoon of Christmas Eve to work production for our church’s Christmas Eve services. The littles and I joined them later for a service. It was so special to see the three older kids perform onstage for the kids’ choir; they did a great job! Unfortunately, Nico started projectile vomiting just before the service started, so as soon as we’d see the kids’ performance, Nico and I headed home. I was SO BUMMED to miss out on the whole service that is always my favorite of the year; Luke was sweet and got videos of the congregation singing Silent Night by candlelight, and he was sure to get a photo booth pic with the kids.
That evening we came home from church, did our final evening of Advent traditions, and got ready for Santa. Santa prep was a little stressful this year as we were managing a very-sick Nico while also trying to get ready, but the kids got their notes for Santa written and we set out cookies and milk for Santa, cookies and chocolate milk for Prep and Landing (IYKYK), and carrots for the reindeer.
Christmas morning was a success! The kids were all thrilled with their gifts and I loved seeing them so happy. Highlights were the Yes/No button keychains that Sully had asked for and that they all found hilarious (including Nico who liked pressing “no” with the Rudolph nose on his jammies); the kids taking turns walking around the house on the stilts Sully got from Santa; Kali wearing her unicorn eye mask while perusing her ballet sticker books; and Charleston’s excitement about his Lego Sorting Hat. I also loved the custom cards I received from Luke and each of the kids.
Christmas afternoon was spent at my in-laws’ where we had a lovely time, despite Nico being sick and fussy. The kids put on the sweetest little Christmas pageant directed by my father-in-law, and we all had fun opening SO MANY gifts. Charleston’s thrill at receiving a Nintendo Switch 2 from his grandparents was off the charts, and the twins were adorable on their new ATVs. I loved seeing Kali and cousin Brooke in their matching green dresses (courtesy of my sister-in-law), which Kali accessorized with her darling new pink boots (courtesy of my other sister-in-law)!
On Sunday, Luke and I celebrated 17 years of marriage! Unfortunately our actual celebration has been delayed since Nico shared his illness with me and my in-laws (our babysitters). Even though our anniversary didn’t look as we had hoped, I’m grateful for every chance to celebrate the amazing man that is my husband. I couldn’t have asked for a better spouse and co-parent and am eternally grateful for him and for the life we have built together.
|| ICYMI: DECEMBER ON THE BLOG ||
Gifted “Whenever I have the opportunity to witness this sort of maximized talent, I experience a sense of honor that I get to be a part of it—as a recipient of the joy and amazement that this gift brings, and also as a cheerleader who can encourage the talented individual to continue leaning into their fine-tuned abilities.“
What I Learned in 2025 “But looking back, the theme of 2025 is that it was a year our family chose the bigger life, stepping out of our comfort zones and into new adventures and commitments and communities. Sitting here at the tail end of 2025, life feels so much fuller and more purposeful than it did just twelve months ago.“
Two Thousand Twenty-Five: The Highlights!
2025 Reading Wrap-Up and My Favorite Books of the Year
I hope that you had an enjoyable December; what were some highlights of your month? And I hope that you have a great evening ringing in the new year! How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve? We will be having a family game night and counting down to “midnight” (8:00). Happy New Year, everyone!