This year, my Christmas village quietly got out of hand… in the most magical way possible. What started as a small, charming setup has grown into a fully realized Dickensian town, bustling with light, character, and history. I’ve now filled it with almost 40 Department 56 houses from the Dickens’ Village collection, and honestly, seeingRead More

Halcy-Con 2025 was already shaping up to be special, but there was one event on the schedule that everyone was buzzing about: The Chef Andrew Experience. A four-course, Starcruiser-inspired dinner, hosted by the galaxy’s “only ten-star chef” himself? It sounded like pure Halcyon magic brought back to life. I knew I wanted to be there.Read More

For years, I’ve had the occasional back issue, the kind where I’d pull a muscle every few years, grit my teeth through the pain, and wait a few days for things to return to normal. But lately, something has been different. In the past several months, my lower back has been giving me trouble farRead More

Well… we’ve done it again, proudly flying our geek flag high for the world to see. Five years ago, when we bought our Toyota Highlander, we went all out with a Pirates of the Caribbean–themed vehicle wrap. It turned heads, sparked conversations, and made every grocery store run fun. Now, half a decade later, itRead More

Over the 4th of July weekend, we returned to one of our favorite places on earth, the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It had been months since our last visit in December, and ever since purchasing land in Waynesville, we’ve felt an ever-deepening connection to the region. Each trip feels like a homecoming, andRead More

For the last month and a half, my husband and I have been trying something radically different when it comes to how we eat—and for the first time, it actually feels sustainable. We’ve tried it all before: Atkins, juicing, cutting carbs, skipping meals—you name it. And every time, the result was the same: we’d stickRead More

There are two topics I always stay away from on this blog, politics and religion. But there are times when either or both of these things can cause mental stress for anyone. Like many of you, my social media news feeds have been inundated with politics. It feels inescapable, headline after headline, opinion after opinion,Read More