Wishing you the Merriest Christmas

Happy day before the day before my friends!

Here around the Mercer house, we’ve been celebrating the holiday season with all of our favourites for several weeks now – nostalgic holiday decor, Christmas baking (find our list here), hot chocolate fuelled light tours around town, and loads of Christmas movies together curled up beside the tree. This holiday season has felt so different from years past – though we’re missing our celebrations with friends and family more than ever right now, we’re doing our best to make the most of this quieter Christmas, slowing down and soaking in every magical minute with our little family.

Tomorrow, the festivities officially kick off with our Christmas dinner. We’ve always hosted our families for a big dinner on Christmas Eve – I love that it gives us the opportunity to share such a special day with our family and getting all that cooking out of the way on Christmas Eve means that I don’t have to waste a minute of Christmas Day in the kitchen. Since our Christmas dinner will be much quieter this year, I’ve decided to skip the turkey and try something a little less traditional (you can find this year’s dinner menu here).

After dinner, once we’ve got the kitchen all cleaned up & put back together again, Carson gets to open his Night Before Christmas Box (always a Christmas Eve highlight!). He’s well aware of this tradition, which means he’s always very eager to help with our dinner clean-up! 😉 Then, it’s time to don our holiday pjs (Carson always gets a new pair in his Night Before Christmas box), pile into the car with a hot chocolate in hand and a tour around town looking at all of the beautiful lights. Usually Carson falls asleep somewhere along the way although I have a sneaking suspicion that this year he may just make it through the light tour to enjoy the dessert we never seem to have room for after dinner and then curl up on the couch for one last Christmas Vacation before bed (another favourite Christmas Eve tradition).

The next morning, I’m usually the first one up – sipping coffee & reading on the couch under the glow of the Christmas tree while I wait for the rest of the house to wake up. Once I hear footsteps from up above, I pop breakfast in the oven for us to enjoy after we open our gifts (I always prep something the night before – here’s what we’ll be enjoying this year). Then, the rest of Christmas Day is spent playing and puzzling and snuggling up for movies, making all the magical memories we can together as a family.

As we snuggle in and enjoy these last moments before Christmas, I just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for all of the support, kind words and encouragement you’ve shown me throughout the year. I understand how precious your time is and I am just so incredibly grateful that you choose to spend some of it with me in this little corner of the internet. I hope reading this blog and following along with our adventures has brought you as much joy as sharing it has brought us!