We had an extra long Thanksgiving break at home this year because our school district decided to do a few days of online learning to slow the COVID spread. Since I'm working at home this semester, it was easy to open up my office to welcome a couple new co-workers for a few days. The kids blew me away with their independence. They came home from school Friday with their bags packed with everything they needed and the teachers super prepared to transition to Zoom. I loved being a fly on the wall of their classrooms and getting the chance to observe their learning instead of be in charge of it like this spring. I was pretty proud of the students they were!
Our Thanksgiving looked different this year. For the past several years, we've hosted my family for Thanksgiving dinner. I love to host and fill up a table of people, but it didn't feel like the right thing to do this year. This opened up lots of opportunities to do things I don't normally do on Thanksgiving day - like rest! So after prepping all our Thanksgiving sides and ushering in Thanksgiving break with charcuterie and cocktails Wednesday night, we had a quiet Thanksgiving just us four - filled with yummy food, a nap, a hike through the woods, and a night of board games, hot cocoa, and a slice of apple pie.
Mimosas, fresh baked cinnamon rolls, and the Macy's parade to start our day. I think I might be on to a new tradition with these overnight cinnamon rolls.
I still set the table and lit all the candles. We decided to eat around 1:00 instead of at night and this proved to be a nice way to spend the day. We had our turkey, cleaned up the kitchen, and had the rest of the day to burn off some of our calories to make room for dessert. We also took the opportunity to try a few new things. Some were big winners, including Joanna Gaines' cranberry sauce, and others were big losers, including Beau's attempt to fry a turkey breast. We still had mashed potatoes and my favorite William Sonoma turkey gravy, still had Beau's favorite stuffing, and still went around the table to add one more grateful tag to our tree. But we sure missed Dad's once-a-year sentiment and Taylor's humor.
The rest of the weekend was a lot more of the same. We stayed in pajamas, I read most of a book, Beau and I binged watched The Morning Show on Netflix, we ate a lot of leftover turkey, played a lot of Ticket to Ride, went through our fair share of cocoa, refused to wait in a line that spanned twenty blocks to see Santa at Holiday Hoopla, ordered Brown Bottle instead, and watched our favorite Home Alone with a pizza and ice cream sundae picnic instead. We've made it to the Christmas season and that alone is something to celebrate!
No comments:
Post a Comment