Christmas 2025

Bella and her roommate came for a short visit the weekend after Thanksgiving and took this photo together to make their own Christmas card. They’re so cute. 

I love a Christmas living room.

Mimi Jane sent us some delicious caramel apples. 

We rarely get snow here in Indiana before Christmas. This year, we have already had two snow falls. The second one came on a Saturday. The day was completely open and we had nowhere to be. I already planned to address Christmas cards that day, so doing so while the snow was falling outside and Christmas music was playing inside was perfection. 

Curtis helped out with the church Christmas program. He was a narrator, so was up in the balcony for most of the program. I didn’t get the best pictures, but here are a couple from that. 

That afternoon, Andy and I went on a date to Indianapolis for a production of “The Christmas Carol”. We were in the third row and the show was fantastic. 

Afterward, we had a dinner reservation for The Fountain Room in the Bottleworks District of Indy, but the restaurant ended up cancelling our reservation due to their heat not working. I was really looking forward to trying out that restaurant, but it just gives us an excuse for another date night. We still had a great time together and I’m looking forward to more of them. 

After school on Dec. 19th, we drove up to WI for our Benetti family Christmas on the 20th. Here are some highlights from that day. 

Uncle Scott dressed up as the Grinch!

Toasting the marshmallows for his S’more Old Fashioned.

Uncle Scott also purchased Whoopi cushions for all the kids! 

Mary ordered chicken parm and pasta and it was so delicious. I think we’ll continue to do this going forward since no one had to cook and clean-up was a breeze. And we all loved it! 

We played Christmas Song Bingo.

Michael was dressed like Grandpa Mike and it was the cutest!

Gift opening time is often utter chaos, but also a lot of fun. 

I know it looks like they’re all on their phones and not interacting with each other, but they each downloaded an app called “Wavelength” and were playing together. 

The next two days were pretty chill. This is the only photo. 

That evening, we drove to Verona to celebrate Christmas with the Kilps Family. The clubhouse at the Meade’s complex was a great place for everyone to gather for games and conversation.

The kids went ice skating. Once upon a time, we used to have to organize activities and transportation, but now they just do it themselves. There are some real benefits to having big kids!

We didn’t do a gift exchange, but Papa and Gaga still had gifts for the grandkids. 

We went to Glenwood Moravian for the Christmas Eve service. 

Tom makes amazing espresso martinis. I may have had three! 

Moose is Tom’s dog and he is the sweetest. He reminds me a lot of my favorite  childhood dog, Biscuit. Growing up, we always had at least 2-3 dogs at a time and Biscuit was hands down my (and most of our) favorite. She was also a golden retriever and was so smart and friendly, just like Moose. 

Our big Christmas gift to the kids is a cruise we’re taking in early January, so the kids didn’t have gifts to open up from us this year. But they still purchased presents for each other, which they opened on Christmas morning. 

Bella bought Curtis a Monopoly game (Curtis loves Monopoly but none of us like to play because it takes too long). This one is connected to a banking app that moves things along more quickly. She bought Graydon a Magic Bullet blender and a sweater.

Graydon bought Bella a cardigan and Curtis a black hoodie sweatshirt.

Curtis bought Graydon a trash container for his car and gray sweatpants. He got Bella a cookbook and wooden cutting board. 

Later that day, the kids decorated and built gingerbread houses. They all turned out fantastic! 

Bella made this one. 

Graydon and Charlie

Curtis and Jacob

Gaga’s birthday is on Christmas. We couldn’t find any birthday candles, so she blew out a taper!

We left WI on the morning of Dec. 26th and have been enjoying the lazy days between Christmas and New Year’s. One evening, we played Curtis’s new Monopoly game. The nice thing about this version is it tabulates the winner for you.

Post-game device time. I went up to bed when we finished up but I wanted to snap a photo to document the activity.