Friday Favorites!

Hi!! Happy Friday!!

And it is indeed a HAPPY Friday- my 2 youngest daughters are officially on Christmas break and my oldest daughter has school today- but gets out early- and then we are in official NO SCHOOL MODE until the New Year! 

I am SO excited to have a little bit of time to just "be" with my kids.  We do a lot of running around and having to be places at certain times...it is going to be glorious to let everyone sleep as long as they want to! Which you know, means, they are going to get up SUPER early- because that is how it always happens, right?!? HA!

Okay...now time to share my FAVORITES from this past week :)

ONE

One night after showers and baths this past week, the girls decided they wanted to act out the Christmas Story. Except my daughter Cora did NOT want to be Joseph. So luckily my oldest daughter quickly suggested that she could be Mary's mother, Anne.  All was right with the world again :)  Then, they decided instead of using a toy baby, that James would be the perfect baby Jesus.  Well...you can see how he felt about that. HA!

I was dying laughing while my husband took this picture!! 

Definitely one of my FAVORITE moments this week!!

TWO

The girls handed out their Christmas gifts to their teachers this year and I was so happy when several of their teachers told me how much they loved their gifts!! I have been giving the same teacher Christmas gifts since Charlotte started preschool- and it is always a FAVORITE with our teachers!  The "big" part of the gift is a monogrammed Christmas hand towel from Leah who runs the cutest shop, Simply Made with Love. The towels are excellent quality and she does the best job with her appliqués and monogramming!! Then I add either a Bath and Body Works candle or a Bath and Body Work hand soap.  This year, I was also able to include a festive Christmas dish cloth (my mom made them!!) and dish soap- so it ended up being a fun, Christmas dish set! I worked as a speech therapist in the schools for several years and received so many lovely gifts over the years- but the ones I really enjoyed were functional and personal. I have always tried to keep that in mind when I get all of our teachers their gifts!

THREE

Speaking of FAVORITE gifts to give teachers and other special people in your life at Christmas- I think I found my new, favorite "GO-TO" gift! I LOVE reading Christina's blog and the other day she talked about making homemade jam for all of her children's teachers.  She includes a loaf of cinnamon bread with the jam- and it is the NICEST gift! 

Well, I realized yesterday that I had a few people still on my list that I wanted to give a little gift to- and so I totally used Christina's cinnamon bread idea! I called my local Michael's and luckily they still had the $1 ceramic mini-baking pans that Christina mentioned using- so my husband graciously stopped by after work and picked me up several of them- along with some festive Christmas ribbon and cellophane gift bags.  The cinnamon bread recipe is SO easy and it makes your house smell SO yummy while the mini loaves are baking!! 

I am SO excited with how cute these little gifts turned out and can't wait to make these every Christmas for the many, special people in our life!

FOUR 

We got a super fun piece of mail this week- the most recent issue of the American College of Foot and Ankle Pediatrics Journal just so happened to have an article in it CO-AUTHORED by my awesome husband!! The girls were totally flipping out seeing Daddy's name in the "magazine" and it was a pretty great moment for my husband to see his name next to his first article he has had published! Definitely a FAVORITE moment for us!!

FIVE
And not to be totally annoying and brag more about my husband...but this week was big for him- so he deserves to be featured twice today :)
About 6 weeks ago, he took a VERY difficult exam that would allow him to be licensed to practice in a specific state (after he graduates from residency).  We were told by A LOT of people that the exam is extremely challenging and to NOT expect for him to pass.  Well- we found out yesterday- HE PASSED!!! 
We were SO excited!!  I don't know if I have mentioned the back story on Aaron's journey to become a podiatrist- (I should totally write a post about it!!)- but he decided to go back to school at 27 (he is turning 37 this January) and it has been a LONG journey to get to where we are now. It is really awesome to see all of his perseverance and hard work paying off. I am so proud of him!
And can we just talk about how cute my guys are?!? :)

Very, very thankful for some wonderful moments for our family this week!
Now it is time to cozy up and soak up the rest of December and this beautiful Christmas season!!

I hope you have the BEST day and a fabulous weekend!!

I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for their Friday Favorites Link Up!

 I am also linking up with April for Five on Friday!

 Joining Karli for her, Oh Hey Friday Link Up! too!

And lastly, linking up with Katie, Tif, Della & Caitlin for High Five for Friday!