a DECEMBER of delights with the GRANDS! Part 1 - Life Lately with Laurie!

Our Grand Lives
40 minutes ago
5 min read

Thursday, December 8, 2026

Welcome Back Everyone!

We hope your holiday season was extra special

and filled with oodles of moments worth remembering!

We both are ready for all that 2026 has in store

AND

while we each cherished our time with loved ones

we are both equally excited to kick off the new year here!

For those new to our blog,

WELCOME! WELCOME!

Three years ago, when we first began writing this blog, we were recently retired kindergarten teachers and both of us were fairly new to this grandparent gig! These days we are as tickled as could be to be GRAND to two sweet Littles each and we’ve each thoroughly embraced this season of life! In fact, we often wonder how we ever found time to work each day!

Many of you know that our ongoing vision for this blog is to share what we’ve found meaningful - with our husbands as we navigate new adventures together during this stage of life but also with our Middles (our own grown children) as our roles in their world evolve into something new! And, of course, we can’t forget our Littles! We often add our ideas, suggestions and GRAND Tips for success based on our many years of experience spent with Littles of all ages!

At the same time, we use this platform to document and share happenings in our own GRAND lives with family and friends, capturing moments we want to savor!

For our first blog post of 2026

- actually our first two blog posts of 2026 -

we want to take a look back

at the month of December…

We’re not sure if anyone else cares about revisiting our holiday content at this point but we’re still delighting in the moments that made the season extra special!

HOWEVER,

as we started writing this post it was quickly becoming an EPIC one,

which, when translated, means it was getting very, very long!

SO, at the last minute,

we made the decision to break this recap into two posts!

TODAY is Part 1 - Life Lately with Laurie!

and

TOMORROW is Part 2 - Life Lately with Laura!

December has a way of packing a whole lot of delight into just 31 short days.

Do you agree?

Between the twinkling lights, Christmas traditions,

cozy moments at home, and all the joy (and chaos!) of the holiday season,

it always seems to fly by while leaving behind the sweetest memories.

Today, Laurie is looking back and savoring it all,

the meaningful moments and simple delights

that made this past December one to remember!

Wow - what a month!

You can probably tell what a great month it was as you scroll along!

My camera roll for December went on forever!

It truly was a busy, busy month filled with so many wonderful gatherings

spent with friends and family.

How can I even choose what delights to highlight??

The month was filled with Christmas gatherings with friends and family..

My High School Friends’ Christmas Party!

We made “Punch Out” Pictures!

Then it was Christmas Carol Bingo with my school retiree friends!

My daughter-in-law’s band (Maria and the Coins) had their Christmas show.

It was held in downtown Minneapolis.

The venue was filled with friends, family and fellow fans!

We were able to attend our Littles’ church and preschool programs!

So proud!

The magic of holiday lights!

We had fun taking Little D and Little P Christmas shopping

for their mommy and daddy

and then we took them out to lunch after!

Of course, the Littles had to wrap their gifts, too!

And finally Christmas itself arrived!

It was a bowling Christmas with my husband’s extended family!

Our favorite Christmas Eve morning tradition…

Children’s service at church, then back home for lunch and presents

with our little family!

Later that day, it was time for some annual Christmas Eve midafternoon and evening fun.

My extended family filled our house!

I managed to weave a silly game into the gathering, (fueled by a punch that might have been a wee bit too strong) that brought laughter and cheers! (Don’t worry – It will all be explained in next December’s post!)

We enjoyed a time of gift exchanges, our traditional appetizer dinner, a few shots of Aquavit (a nod to our Danish ancestors), more games and our traditional “dinosaur” photo, shown above!.

Christmas Day meant pjs, the Vikings game and dinner at Son D and DIL M’s house.

A few days later, we celebrated our 40th anniversary on December 28!

Since it was a snowy, blizzardy day, we stayed home to celebrate!

Then it was out to breakfast for Son D’s 33rd birthday on the 30th!

Where do the years go???

We were ready to celebrate New Year’s Eve!

We had our Littles overnight on the 31st so their parents could have a well-deserved night out with friends.

We went to a family party and spent the next day playing, crafting, reading and snuggling. I can’t think of a better way to end 2025 and welcome 2026.