I'm caught up on podcasts and audiobooks, so I went back into my saved podcasts today. HERE is my favorite episode ever from Mel Robbins (released just before my 40th birthday in February 2024). This episode is what really drew me to Mel and played a big part in my decision to join her final Launch course two months later, which played a part in me choosing surgery and shaped my life in many other ways. I love Mel's heart for people, and I love the message of leading with HOPE and LOVE she shares here (it's just her speaking from the heart - highly recommend it). My theological views differ from hers, but in a way that should only deepen and strengthen my own life's message of hope and love! ❤
She talks about how love is in the details - being intentional about small acts of kindness. She talks about our shared human need to be seen and heard and valued, and the great importance of being intentional and clearly saying "I love you and believe in you," letting ALL people know that they matter and that you see them and believe in their potential.
It all resonates for me, and this philosophy is gradually becoming ingrained in my identity.
This message from JB meant a lot today - intentionality matters.
I'm forever a details girl, and there are so many small things my friends and family members do that remind me I am loved. And it all matters. When I'm stressed about what others may think of my decisions, the "David, nobody cares" gif is a pretty helpful reminder. But when I'm hurting and/or feeling unseen or insignificant, believing that nobody really cares feels extra crushing. And false. Even when most people get busy and fail to fully see us, God does. And He cares about our hearts. ALWAYS.
So for anyone reading this right now, whether or not we have met in real life, I sincerely love you and believe in you, and I believe in your God-given potential and value! You were created on purpose and for a purpose. I am confident that Jesus loves you and believes in you, and He is close to you today, and working behind the scenes for your ultimate good and His glory. You matter. Your voice, your needs, your thoughts, your opinions, your emotions, your memories -- they matter. And if someone or something matters to your heart, it also matters to God. You are never alone or unseen or forgotten. God cares about the big picture, but He also cares about the smallest details. (And so do I.)
Now I'm off to relax a bit as I prepare for my first day at the OCC job tomorrow. I'm truly glad you are here, friends. I love you and believe in you! I hope you know you are capable of growth and positive change... and I hope you believe to your core that you are deeply loved and valued, just as you are today!!
Hey friends! I'm sitting here in my super-cozy home office eating Nerds Gummy Clusters (random, but they sounded good when I was checking out at the store) and blogging. I got all my work boxes stored and hung up the final bedlam game pic this morning. Love how this space is shaping up!
Okay, so I've seen this a couple times on Facebook lately - they keep showing me NYC Christmas pics and videos, including this Louis Vuitton building! I thought it was probably AI at first, but other commenters asked and people assured them it was real. I then assumed it was an art installation they added this year... and when I was showing it to Rachael, Triston pulled up a pic of this on his phone that he took during the tour on our January trip! lol He had the window seat, and I for sure missed this part - very cool building, though!!
This space from Christmas to New Years is always a little odd - in between two big holidays, preparing for the end of one year and beginning of another, and in between two jobs in my case this year. I feel this deeply, so I appreciated Elyse's post: "I just wanted you to know you aren't alone if this week typically brings up feelings you can't quite explain... I'm so grateful to be here, and I'm also confused as to what tomorrow means for me pretty much every single day of the year. ❤"
I spent most of Friday and Saturday helping Mom (and Dad) take down Christmas decor. We had a catastrophe of sorts while I was trying to pry off the J (still sitting right there, held firmly by nano tape)... a line of loose bricks fell down, hitting their countertop below and shattering to the floor... unexpected and very jarring! Thankfully, Mom had just stepped out of the room.
It also shattered their stovetop, which then cut Mom's hand... sadness!
We will rebuild. lol (And her hand is fine - I was definitely more concerned with it than she was.)
Mom and I were very productive and made loads of progress through Friday and Saturday. Dad was at work off and on, but he brought us dinner both days and helped with garland takedown, putting up high/heavy boxes, and pulling nails out of the woodwork!
This is very much on my heart as we step toward another new year... hard is not always worth the effort.
I still have ambitions and dreams, but watching some of them die a slow and painful death makes it decidedly harder to keep pursuing the others. On a lighter note, I'm also a classic Enneagram 9, so I'm psyched about working from home and strongly relate with Melanie's post here! lol
Rach wanted a cute pic of K drinking from her bearista mug, but we got this extra-blinky gif that brings me lots of joy instead! lol Her whole personality and sense of humor are so fun to me, and she's one of my favorite people on the planet!
Jesus is Lord. ❤
Mom and Dad's Christmas house as a Thomas Kinkade painting (courtesy of ChatGPT). ❤ I love it - the 2025 decor was awesome, and their backyard view is naturally picturesque... the only change from the real pic I'm noticing is lighting the candles to make it feel extra warm.
Thomas Kinkade-style Wilson tree - so bright and lovely this year! ❤
And a Norman Rockwell-style painting of Tate showing me their gingerbread village - I love this one, too! ❤
Mmkay, I'm very much enjoying this side of AI, but trying to rein it in. lol
Hmm, still working on this one. lol
A fun fact I learned in our fam Christmas Trivia game is that Santa Claus was typically dressed in green before Coca-Cola popularized the images of Santa dressed in red and white! Well played, Coke marketing team!! Could not care less about the soft drink, but I love their polar bear ads and color scheme and have bought lots of merch at Coca-Cola World... and believe it or not, the longer version of this random '90s commercial jingle below was one of my Top 10 most played songs on iTunes for several years. lol It just brings me real joy! (I'd invite you to sing along, but I'd be kinda stunned if anyone else knew the words. lol)
Merry Christmas, blog-reading friends and family!! ❤
(I'm starting this at 11pm, so assuming I get it posted within the hour, that still applies.)
This Christmas season has been busy, but good. As per usual, it is A LOT of anticipation and decorating and fun parties and lead-up, and then the actual Christmas day is pretty low-key since we exchange gifts and do most of our celebrating beforehand.
Here's a family pic by the tree last night - I love it!! I gotta remember to bring my tripod to Mom and Dad's soon, but for now, we've made it work with camera timers and selfies.
Kyndal Faith's Wish List Presentation for the win! lol She got most of what she asked for, so kudos to her for making a handy shopping list for us!
T-man helping Dad with his iPad! It's been good to see Triston more in the past week than I have all year since our NYC trip!
Mom carried on Babah's tradition by getting Rach and I some random things like toothbrushes and Kleenex and floss... then she improved on it by throwing in lip glosses and perfumes and such, and putting it all in a trash can, which she knew I needed for my new office room! lol
Jace Michael got a fun punching bag and some awesome LeBron shoes (quite the unboxing extravaganza)! He is currently very into boxing and "Iron Mike" Tyson, so that was a repeated subject this week!
Mini Miss K also got some cute new pink and purple volleyball shoes, something she's appreciated from a very young age! ;-)
T-man got her the Starbucks Bearista cup she'd asked for - adorable!
Rachael's cards were super creative and entertaining, as per usual!!
Mine were plain and simple, as were my $$ gifts!
Kyndal Faith made a Christmas movie trivia game for us to play. She's the very best, and I just adore it that she takes the initiative to do fun stuff like this!
Rach put everything in for the online order from Dominoes - when it wouldn't go through, we realized they were closed for Christmas Eve. We decided to call Saltgrass since we would be in that area for Christmas lights - they had a 90-minute wait, but after playing the trivia game and driving through Gaillardia, that worked out pretty perfectly! We had excellent service, and their potato soup did not disappoint!
J&K being thrilled to take more photos. lol
Rach got her Kraft mac n' cheese classic Christmas dinner! lol (The pic of her is from Paul's Place, what I used for ChatGPT. lol)
Our car pic makes me happy - it was fun to sit back there with T-man and Kyndal Faith, and we fought through a bit of traffic congestion to see lots of pretty homes in Nichols Hills!
Including the well-protected home of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA on the OKC Thunder team).
We got back to Mom and Dad's around 10pm, then came over again at 10am this morning for Christmas brunch! (Triston went to JoBug's for breakfast with Blake and Wendy and co.)
Rach made pancakes and Mom and Kyndal made scrambled eggs and bacon... Jace showed us boxing videos, and I snacked on the cinnamon churro crackers Mom made yesterady - yum!
Mom asked me to bring our Senior year autobiographies, a CHA assignment Triston will do this year! It was fun to look back through them and interesting to think about how differently we might write certain things now!
I took a sunny Christmas day walk at The Station around 3:30... it was really nice weather, and I listened to Rachel McAdams reading me Anne of Green Gables - so enjoying that again - right up there with Little Women for me!
I went to see David at the Moore Warren and ended up by one of my former CHA classmates and her entire extended family, so having to explain repeatedly that I was there on my own was not my favorite thing, in spite of solo movie nights being one of my favorite things. lol The movie was really good, though - I love David's heart and story and thought the songs were all well done!
❤
And I ended the night in cozy Christmas PJs with T-Swift and blogging, which feels appropriate on every level. It's been a very rich and busy Christmas season, and I appreciated a quiet and cozy Christmas night!
I saw a short Christmas video from Amy Groeschel on the Bible App this morning. She talked about how people in the early Bible days were waiting on the promised Messiah to come, then she said, "But our wait is over - Jesus is here with us, Immanuel!" On one level, I get what she is saying - God is with us and for us in spirit, but not in the fully tangible way our hearts long for Him to be. The idea that the wait is over implies that life here and now is all it was meant to be, which is asinine. My mind cut right to John Eldredge talking about how we do not spend enough time talking about the second coming - how our hearts should be tethered to that hope and eagerly anticipating and awaiting the return of Jesus. So on that level, our wait is NOT over... Jesus is not tangibly in front of any of us right now. We miss our loved ones in Heaven, and our lives are far from perfect or complete or whole... but Jesus will be physically before us someday, and things will no longer be partial and incomplete...
For the final time this year, Merry Christmas.
If you had a rich and fantastic Christmas full of fun memories and great food and music and surrounded by people you love, hold it loosely and remind your heart that that the joy you experienced was a wonderful preview of what life will feel like in the coming Kingdom! And if you've wrestled with quiet disappointment, loneliness, grief, anger, or broken hopes this holiday season, take courage in the ultimate hope that Jesus is coming again. Full victory, healing, connection, and restoration are truly on the way! Happiness is fragile, but hope is freaking resilient. After the heavy disappointment and confusion I've experienced this year, the promise of a risen and victorious Jesus coming back to claim His bride and His place on the throne as King does a lot more for my heart right now than reflecting on the over-familiar baby in a manger season. It's all connected, of course, and much like the people in early Bible times, we are now called to wait with hope and expectancy for something we've heard about but not yet seen, and confident in Him we keep watch (Micah 7:7-8)! ...The God of our salvation will fulfill His promises! ❤
6. Iwanagas and Wilsons at the Bougie Charcuterie Party!
7. Pic with Parker after The Nutcracker ballet!
8. "A Mockey Little Christmas" Year #8
9. Farewell lunch with Judge Brockman and Doris!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! ❤
This = the final day in my 12 Days of Recaps with a few blog quotes and my top nine photos from each month of 2025!
DECEMBER:
"Resuming an activity after an interruption... extending the validity of a contract... repairing something that is worn out or broken. Gracious, all of that speaks to me and applies to desires that are resurfacing."
~Renewal, 12-1-25
"I gave all the children's books I'd been saving to the wonderful Wilson fam, knowing they read to their children and have two young kids and one on the way... and it made me really happy to see Tate enjoying it!"
~Marble Jars and Kingdom Hope, 12-6-25
"We have a heart designed for the unending family-style connections and redemptive joy and lasting purpose that will. be. ours. forever. in the Kingdom of Heaven, and all the lovely things we experience here will always be partial and incomplete by comparison. So make the most of all the joy you are given here, but let your heart find rest in the firm and secure Kingdom hope we have through Christ! The best is yet to come, truly." ~Marble Jars and Kingdom Hope, 12-6-25
"Jessica was talking to Kantrell about how she has to be more careful about what she eats because her metabolism has changed since she was in her mid-20s, and Jon chimed in with: Pretty sure my metabolism changed when I was 8! lol" ~A Very Bougie Christmas, 12-7-25
"Most of us hide our preferences and conform in an effort to belong... this book is a roadmap for questioning the perceived norms, speaking honestly about our true values, and building healthier environments where AUTHENTICITY replaces conformity!" ~Final Books for 2025, 12-9-25
"Apple Music gave me my 2025 recap - I really laughed about Jon Bon Jovi being my top artist for the month of March! I was on a Blaze of Glory kick and apparently listened to that one song enough to outrank any other artist that month." ~Blaze of Glory, 12-10-25
"[Kyndal]'s the best. And watching that made me want to look back at my own childhood pics and videos with more grace and positivity! " ~Sassy, Brave, & Cute, 12-12-25
"I'm never likely to turn down a remote job, but I want to be very clear that I've loved my time in Cleveland County and been treated very well here! Judge Brockman has given me his own gated parking space, worked with my school schedule, supported my adoption and counseling goals, and been great about taking care of the record!"
~Christmas Remix, 12-17-25
"Mockey and the Boys! Thankful for the way these two have shown up for me over the past 15+ years... their Godly wisdom, genuine support, and all the laughter they bring into my life has gotten me through some rough seasons and shaped who I am today!" ~Feliz Navidad, 12-21-25
"'Grief must be witnessed, not fixed.' ...When grief feels sharp for me, writing helps to soften it, and knowing my words will be read by even one person who cares about me helps me feel less alone in hard seasons." ~Surprise Last Day, 12-22-25
This is our group pic after an early lunch at Ted's in MWC. ❤
Table pics of both sides! Asher and Karsten were at the head of the table. =)
JoBug, Mom, and Jaceman! It makes me happy that JoBug's grandma name is "Sassy." lol
A few random pics at Ted's
I very specifically remember feeling sad when I saw this pic of me on Christmas Eve 2023 with Asher Kenneth, and feeling joy when I saw the pic on the right yesterday with Karsten Blaire!
I'm thankful for cute babies, and very thankful for health and confidence progress!!
2023 and 2025 family pics - happy and grateful that I feel okay with being up front now!
Asher and Dasher! ;-)
Part of my gift for Judge Brockman (along with an OU hoodie). He said this quote in every Wellness Court plea I took a record on, talking with the participants about the importance of getting back up and learning from past mistakes, so I made this using Canva and ordered the wood panel at Walgreens. =)
Dinner last night was Paul's Place steakhouse in Shawnee (right next to OBU, as it turned out). A bit of a drive and lacking in great ambiance, but it was really good food, so we'll probably be back!
K-Faith challenging Rach to a straw duel whilst Rach and I were mid-conversation. lol She's a funny one!
Jill and I in our almost-matching Christmas attire! =)
More AI photo fun during dinner. lol
After dinner, I stayed up till 1:30 to bake and ice a chocolate layer cake, and I was excited to get to try out my new stand mixer! =)
And that brings us to Christmas Eve!! ❤
Thus far, I slept in, wrote cards for the niece and nephews, watched The Santa Clause and two episodes of T-Swift's docuseries, and exchanged gifts with the Whitakers (and Frankie checked out my car brakes which have been a little squeaky and shaky lately). I'm headed to Mom and Dad's in a few minutes for a Christmas Eve pizza dinner and fun family game night and gifts + a Christmas lights tour of Gaillardia and Nichols Hills (noteworthy fancy neighborhoods in the OKC area).
Sadly, I failed to get a pic with the whole Whitaker fam earlier... Doorbell cam for the win! LOL
