Hey Hey Friday!

Hey friends!

Happy Friday!

How has your week been?

It has been a hard, heavy week for us. Something very tragic happened to a young person in our school community and my heart has been absolutely shattered for the family. 

And yet..life continues to move forward...and so we've gone about our school/work/sports routine this week and it has all just felt off. We've had to talk about some really hard things. AND we've listened to lots of Christmas music, St. Nicholas made a visit to our house and we've celebrated small "wins." 

It's been BOTH/AND. 

HARD and GOOD.

I considered just skipping my usual Friday blog post...but I decided I wanted to share a some favorites from this week...I am choosing JOY! 

I turned 43 this past Sunday and it was such a lovely day spent with my family!!

I am not quite sure how I am 43...because I still feel 28! HA!

Truly though- I feel amazing...I am so grateful for my incredibly loving husband, my amazing kids, my health and a multitude of other blessings that I have undeservedly been given!

I shared all about the dress I am wearing in my blog post on Wednesday!! I ordered this dress on a whim from Walmart and I ended up loving it so much! 

You can check out the blog post HERE!

Currently one of my most favorite parts of the day is early in the morning. 

I love my quiet early mornings - but looking at our reading room Christmas tree all lit up...listening to classical Christmas music and drinking a cup of coffee...

well it is PERFECTION.

I don't want to be one of those annoying early morning people...but if you aren't waking up before the rest of your house is up...you are missing out!!

Our elves have been at our house for a week now and I have done 2 "creative" things with them. (The rest of the time they have been moving from a bookshelf to a mantle to another shelf. HA!) This is one of the two fun things they have done. HA! 

I thought this was a pretty good (and VERY easy) Elf idea! 

These letter cookies are from Trader Joe's and they are so fun and delicious!!

I shared about this heatless curl "kit" on Instagram this week...but I wanted to share it here too!

I got this set for my daughters for St. Nicholas day treat and they were super excited about it! This would be such a fun gift idea for any special girl in your life! I plan on purchasing another one for my daughter to take to her cheerleading Christmas party! 

You can find it HERE on Amazon!

What are ya'll up to this weekend? 

We have a surprise party for one of my best friends and I am SO excited!!

Other than that you will find me in the kitchen baking. I have A LOT of cookies I need to bake!!

Whatever you find yourself doing this weekend...I hope you can take a moment or two to look around and just be present to right in front of you. There is so much good around us...even in the mundane moments!

Hope you have a FABULOUS Friday and a WONDERFUL weekend!

Linking up with from Andrea and Erica for Friday Favorites!!!