I could write for weeks about everything I did over Christmas break seeing as I had over half of the month off from work (unbelievable, I know!), but it might be a bit awkward if we’re still discussing ornaments and gingerbread cookies on Valentine’s Day, no?

And so, today and tomorrow… the places and faces of my holiday at age 25.

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1. Not only did I dress Avi in footie pajamas throughout the break, but I also made sure Snuggles y Cuddles wore their pajamas, too.  Everyone needs to wear their winter warmies, after all!

2. I put up my Christmas tree.  Last Christmas was so difficult in so many ways that I never even attempted to put my tree up; I just didn’t feel much like celebrating.  But this year?  This year it was up with plenty of cupcake ornaments sprinkled all over it, a sign of a lighter heart.

3.  Two nights before Christmas, one side of my family got together at a restaurant to celebrate Christmas.  My favorite memory from that night?  Getting to sit across the table from my grandmother, BJ, with Avi in my lap.  We were the perfect triangle: grandmother, oldest granddaughter and first great-grandchild.

4. I planned a surprise trip to Nashville for MacKenzie and Avi and, at the last minute, the newlyweds as well as Avi’s dad were able to go with us.  We went to Opry Mill’s mall, ate lunch with sharks, rode a boat through the Opryland Hotel and saw a matinee performance from the Rockettes.

5.  I got to give and receive Christmas gifts!  Isn’t this package adorable?  You wouldn’t believe everything Cara gave me for Christmas, but a darling apron so I can pretend that I know how to cook is at the top of the list!

6. I drove to Katie’s house in GA and spent the night with her whilst her husband was out of town on business.  We window-shopped all over ATL, met some rappers at The Cheesecake Factory and laughed at ourselves until we were crying.  The best part though?  We made a late-night run to the grocery store for chocolate chip cookie dough before taking over the master bedroom to watch movies, ridiculous television shows and talk until we fell asleep mid-sentence.

7. I went to see my favorite set of triplets, also known as K., P. and R.!  When I was a few miles away, their mom sent this picture to my cell phone with the caption “Waiting for Amy Beff to arrive.”  I nearly cried.  I love every moment I get to spend with the Scott family, but especially with mom J.

8. This year, instead of just hanging one stocking for myself, I had reason for three stockings to hang from my mantle.  Getting to have both my girls at Christmastime?  Priceless.

9.  I took the girls to see Christmas lights all over town.  I’m an all white lights kind of girl but, trust me, my girls sure aren’t.  The more colorful the lights, the louder the shrieks from the backseat.  And I decided that maybe the colorful lights aren’t so ugly after all.

10. I went to the beach with Cara, my confidant in the truest sense of the word: this girl knows more of me than anyone on the planet.  We spent our entire four days together talking about everything and anything in our lives… as well as possibly flirting with some firemen.  But I’ll let her tell you that story sometime.

11. While we were at the beach, I took some paper, a pen and a piece of cardboard to balance it on down to the water and just wrote. For a girl of 25, I’ve seen quite a list of amazing things in the world but I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as the beach in the winter.

12.  One night whilst I was in Knoxville, I stopped in at a very large salon (think 60+ stylists working at any given time) that I used to work for in my late high school / early college years so I could get my hair cut.  I still keep in touch with a lot of the staff from there and this was their first time meeting Avi.  Before I could even make it to the shampoo bowl, Avi had been whisked out of my arms and had an entire entourage of hair stylists wanting to play with her hair.  She was safely deposited back into my arms right around the time my own cut was finished, every hair on her head fixed “like a princess, Amy Beff” with the stylists begging me to bring her back the next time I come in town.  Isn’t that darling?

Tomorrow?  An arcade in Nashville, a bench in Savannah and a peek underneath my Christmas tree!