I don't want to alarm anyone with this next statement but can you believe CHRISTMAS DAY IS EXACTLY THREE WEEKS AWAY?! Is this not already the fastest Christmas season we've ever had?! In many ways I think I'm ahead of the game. Christmas shopping is done, Christmas cards are here and ready to be addressed and stamped, and my electricity bill has been on the steady increase thanks to all these twinkle lights for weeks now. But now, I just want the days to go slow so I can savor up the sweetness of it all. I had three different events I had penciled in to our calendar last night. We like to go to Christmas at Oakridge every year, I thought the kids would like to see a real live reindeer at Scheels, and I wanted to go listen to Brad and Kate for Giving Tuesday at Singlespeed. But after the work day ended, I just felt called to stay home. We had chili and talks around the Christmas tree for dinner, read all about Noah (Cruz learned the big kid version last night - woops), and I organized boxes of gifts and started wrapping - one of my favorite Christmas pastimes after the kids go to bed. It felt good to be home - something I always feel needs a little extra effort to commit to this month. Especially when we've got just three weeks to go!
We are back to routine this week after enjoying a glorious week off for Thanksgiving break. I love the rhythm we've fallen into - a couple days off to myself to get the house ready for Thanksgiving AND play a little elf, a Thanksgiving Eve day with the kids and friends, a big family feast around our table for Thanksgiving, lots of holiday kickoff fun, and LOTS of laying around in pajamas not counting calories and reading a lot of books.
I organized one of most treasured little Advent rituals early last week - wrapping 25 of our favorite Christmas books that have been packed away in the basement all year. Lots of the books correspond with our favorite traditions and Christmas pastimes - The Gingerbread Man for our baking day, Little House in the Big Woods for our Christmas camp-out in the living room, and a big cheese pizza ordered to enjoy with Home Alone. It takes about an hour to wrap all the books and helps keeps us organized throughout the month when it comes to our favorite Christmas-y things we love to do together.
We kept our rooms cozy and stayed in Christmas jammies for a good part of most days.
We counted our monies and picked out special sibling gifts for Christmas morning. It always ends up being one of their favorite gifts under the tree and it's pretty sweet to see them carefully make their decisions. They made the mutual decision to spend about $20 on each other, but Cruz didn't bat an eye when the toy he picked out for Mila cost $27. Looking forward to more acts of kindness this month.
We had Charly and Hayes here for the afternoon, but Mila took a break from playing to help me make cinnamon butter for our Thanksgiving table. It was a great parting gift for our family and is absolutely terrific on toast.
We gathered at Rudy's Tacos for our annual not-cooking-before-hosting-Thanksgiving crew. There were about 24 of us total and we filled a table that spanned the length of the restaurant. Kyle played the kids' favorite "funcle" and bought them all ice cream and then Mila and Lincoln pretty much ran the restaurant while our crew moved to the Beer Hall to play a great big game of Killer. :)
We had a slow Thanksgiving day, prepping little turkey pancakes and big mama turkeys that would feed us all. The big balloons did indeed fly at the Macy's Parade despite all talks they wouldn't due to wind, and the Bears played, and indeed won despite all talks they would lose yet again. It's been another rough season for these Chicago fans.
We feasted on lots of family favorites, played some Thanksgiving jeopardy, and ended the night past midnight with kids still running around and adults fascinated by bird mating habits and ant leaf collection on Our Planet. Nobody ever said we were normal OR new how to say goodbye.
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