Happy New Year!

ByTamera Alexander
11 Comments

Happy New Year, friends!

I hope your holidays were wonderful and that you’re ready for 2026. But ready or not, here we are!

I’m one of those who puts up the tree and decorations pretty quickly after Christmas (of course, I start putting everything up in mid-October), and I love getting back into routine and normalcy. This year especially, I welcome the start of a new year.

Here are some glimpses of our holidays . . .

THANKSGIVING 2025
PHOTOBOMBING THE CHRISTMAS PIC (THE KIDS DIDN’T MELT DOWN AT SANTA THIS YEAR SO WE’RE CALLING THAT A WIN!)
OUR GRANDSON AT HIS 3RD BDAY PARTY (GRAMTAM WATCHING FOR TRAFFIC AS A SKID STEER & EXCAVATOR CAME RUMBLING UP TO LET THE KIDS HAVE SOME FUN)
OUR GRANDSON AT HIS 3RD BDAY PARTY
OUR GRANDSON’S 3rd BDAY and his CONSTRUCTION CAKE
I LOVE MAKING THE GRANDS’ BDAY CAKES. NEXT UP? A MINNIE MOUSE CAKE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS FOR OUR GRANDDAUGHTER’S 2ND BDAY
SWEET FRIEND SARA WEBER MADE A CHERRY PIE FOR OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER (Thanks, Sara! and YUM)
MAKING COOKIES BEFORE THANKSGIVING
KELS AND I HAPPENED TO WEAR THE SAME OLD VAIL SWEATSHIRT FROM OUR COLORDAO DAYS
THE GRANDS WANTED MICKEY AND MINNIE TO JOIN THEM FOR LUNCH
ALEXANDER GIRLS GAME NIGHT (Someone spilled the Chuy’s jalapeño dip but that didn’t stop us!)

How were your holidays? Did you travel? Stay home? Have a friend do your Christmas baking for you? Play games? Watch movies? Whatever you did, I hope it was a treasured time with friends and family—and that you’re excited for 2026 like I am.

Now to get ready for the grands. This is Tuesday, so Gram Tam & Papa Joe Day!

Love from my corner of Nashville and God’s richest blessings in this New Year,

Tammy

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Tamera Alexander is a USA Today bestselling novelist and one of today's most beloved authors of inspirational historical romance and women’s contemporary fiction. While being Gram Tam is her current favorite role, she’ll never turn down a stroll through an old cemetery or browsing through antique shops. In These Hills, her newest novel, releases September 2026.

11 Comments

  1. It seems like just yesterday your grandbabies were tiny and now look at them! So precious and I know you had a wonderful Christmas. So fun to see all the photos!

  2. Great pictures make great memories! Thanks for sharing. I leave my decorations up for about two weeks in January to enjoy in peaceful quiet in the evenings. Of course they’re not completely ready until a week before. My joy was to have my granddaughter home from her first semester in college. Happy New Year!

    1. Betty, I’m so grateful your granddaughter was home for the holidays! And her first semester in college… What a time in life. I remember my first year so well. Praying for her right now—for God’s leading and for her to lean into him for wisdom and guidance. And yes, yes, yes to peaceful quiet evenings in January. : ) Hugs to you.

      1. Thank you so much for your prayers for my granddaughter. She is at VCU majoring in radiology. She completed her first semester with a 3.5 ave. Continued prayers are always appreciated, as she returns Jan. 10.

  3. Hi Tamera!
    Happy New Year to you and your family! Our youngest son from Nashville visited us here in the Sierra Foothills for 10 days this Christmas. I loved cooking for him, and also eating out at his favorite places some nights. We also watched Christmas movies at home, and went to see Song Sung Blue the evening before he went back to Nashville. I’m so grateful to have a kind, loving son who still enjoys spending time with us!

    1. Jennifer, what a lovely Christmas you had! Amen to having a kind, loving son who still enjoys spending time with you. I feel the same about our kids, and had that very thought at both Thanksgiving and Christmas when our family was gathered around the table laughing and talking. I snapped several mental pics and tucked them away. So precious. Blessings to you in 2026 and so glad we’re on this journey together.

  4. Happy New Year, Tamera! Love all the pics. Looks like a wonderful Christmas season! Your construction cake is amazing! I’ve made a few cakes for my grands over the years but nothing spectacular. The most involved one was a Moana 2-tiered waterfall cake. It wasn’t perfect, but I was pretty proud of it, and most importantly, my granddaughter loved it!

    Hope you have a wonderful 2026!

    1. Your Moana cake sounds amazing! And you’re so right, Deena! That the grands love it is what matters. I told myself that as—especially after we cut into it—that construction cake really did look like it was under construction! But he loved it and even came over a few days later very sad looking and said, “All my cake is gone. It’s gone….” LOL I told him we’d make something else yummy—and we did. Blessings to you in 2026!

  5. We had a great family holiday. All of us from East, West and north met in Puerto Rico for a time of fun at the beach and exploration. Mapa takes the Socks to hang on the patio and we have a very good week together and the together part is the best.

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