This post is sponsored by Hallmark but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.


A couple of weeks ago, I announced that we had been hit with a couple of big surprises that week. One of them was that my cousin and best friend is pregnant…with TWINS! We are so over the moon for her! It’s kind of crazy because twins do not run in our family and her doctor said this happening was a 1 in 10,000 chance. It is truly a miracle. The other huge news that hit us was that our house sold!! Finally! After 20 months on the market, we are finally moving! The catch? We are moving next week. Yep, right during Thanksgiving. In order to try and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday and be able to spend time with family, we have decided to move on Wednesday.

So why is this Christmas going to be so different? Well, we have decided to move into my parents house until we find a house in order to save money. They have plenty of room now that the three of us kids are grown and out on our own, but it will be a huge change during a very busy time of year. It will definitely not be without challenges, but we are so grateful to them to allow us to stay there because we will be able to save a ton of money for a down payment on our next home. We are hoping to be there for only a month or two, but one thing I’ve learned is that you just never know what God has in store for you.

We just got back into town Sunday night from Jacksonville and had been gone for 9 days. I came home to a mess and tons of laundry and I am now in the process of packing up our entire house with only a week left to do it. To say I’m stressed would be an understatement.

While we are going to be going through a big move and hopefully another one soon, I am determined to make Christmas just as special. Change is very hard on young kids. This is probably going to be tough on H especially, so I want to keep things as normal and fun as possible. That means sticking to traditions. 

My mom has a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree that she let me borrow to mess with Ryan and the kids. I came home yesterday with it and told them this was going to be about as good as it gets this year. Of course, I was playing with them and Ryan got a kick out of it. I also stopped by Hallmark and bought these adorable Charlie Brown Itty Bittys as well as this adorable little Peanuts Christmas Light Show! I bet you can’t guess which one was H’s favorite! He loves anything that plays music. He just giggled and danced and played it over and over. It made my day that he was so happy over this tiny gift.

While I was at Hallmark, I also picked up wrapping paper, ribbon and tags to start wrapping all the presents I bought in Florida. I was a little bit too obsessed with the plaid reindeer paper. It is adorable and I have big plans to sit in the floor in the middle of all of our boxes and start wrapping a few gifts while watching Hallmark Christmas movies! They are my favorite.

Have you ever had a crazy holiday due to a big life change? What do you enjoy buying at Hallmark?