It’s officially Thanksgiving week! The boys have the entire week off from school and I have to say, I’m welcoming the little break. As extremely happy as I have been to have them back in school, there is something wonderful about just relaxing all of the schedules and routines. My favorite thing I think is not having to rush my morning routine. Normally I need to be upstairs by no later than about 7:10/7:15 to oversee everything and get them off to school.
Prep is in full swing here (despite it being a pandemic holiday, there still seems to be plenty to do within our own household). This was not a “relaxing” weekend, per se. But that’s okay. I was actually super grateful to just have TIME to make some progress on some of the things I wanted to do to get ready for the holidays. (I think last year the weekend before Thanksgiving Asher had a 3 day out-of-town swim meet…).
Groceries ✔!
Many years for Thanksgiving I have been out grocery shopping literally Wednesday night. I am SO glad to be all stocked and ready to go in advance this year with our favorite T-Day choices.
*The grocery store (+ Target & Menards) were insane. I couldn’t help but almost chuckle to myself at the irony of it all…all of these rules and regulations are in place prohibiting groups of <10 kids from having swim practice in separate lanes in a chlorinated pool, yet there were so many people in the produce section I could NOT EVEN COUNT how many there were. (I tried). People everywhere. Everywhere!!! I might as well have been at a concert. Sigh. I don’t know the answer. This whole thing is so hard. I tried my very best to keep away from people and everyone was masked, thankfully.*
Christmas Tree ✔
We are Team Fake Tree. I actually have no desire of any kind to have a real tree. Sorry to those who do- more power to you. I am perfectly content to lug my fake tree up from the basement every year. 🙂
We got it set up during the Packers game (ugh, loss in overtime!!) while eating take out pizza for dinner. 🙂
Then we flipped Pandora on to Christmas tunes and decorated! The boys always LOVE getting all of their ornaments out.
I snapped pics of a bunch of their favorites (we traditionally always buy them ornaments when we travel + just others from their childhood).
Rainbow the Fish…RIP ❤ 
Speedy the Hamster…RIP❤ 
I still have many of my childhood ornaments, too. Let’s just say I have a LOT of piano or music themed ornaments!! Like this one:
I love the tradition of decorating the tree. It’s really special to me!! I’m glad we got the tree up early this year, because relaxing by the twinkle lights + fireplace is probably one of my favorite things ever.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my senses. Always, of course, but it stands out to me more now. I’m grateful to be able to fully experience the smells, sounds, and sights of the holidays.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Team fake tree over here, too! That’s what I grew up with. We got a real tree one year and I remember it falling over on my dad when he was sleeping in the recliner next to the tree! It also made a huge mess so my mom who is a total clean freak said NEVER AGAIN! Your tree looks so pretty. There is nothing like the warm glow of a tree. A lot of my ornaments are ones I bought on clearance right after Christmas my first year out of college, but I love them and they still match my taste. We are starting to add more ornaments that Paul makes at school which I love! I just ordered an ornament kit for baby’s first Christmas – I’ll do a hand print like I did for Paul although he was 10 months at his first Christmas so the handprint will be much smaller for #2. But it’s a great way to capture that first Christmas. They also made a footprint one for Paul at daycare. I also like to buy ornaments when traveling. It’s so fun to pull them out and remember buying them!
Crazy about the stores being so busy! Phil went early on Saturday morning and said it wasn’t too busy but he could see people were starting to panic buy certain things… Here we go again! We are doing a very simple Thanksgiving since it’s just us 3 and I’m so restricted on what I can eat. But I’ll put more effort into Christmas! We’ll still have turkey which is something we just can’t do without on Thanksgiving (although I know several people who are skipping it this year and doing something different!).
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Haha, I don’t like the idea of the mess with a real tree either! It is so fun to look back on the ornaments from when the kids were little. They love seeing the ones they made!!
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I love the tradition of ornaments from places the boys have traveled. Your house looks so lovely and cozy for the holidays : ) I think we may try getting a real tree this year, but we’ll see how it goes!
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Thank you! Good luck with your tree choice!! 🙂
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what a fun tradition! we left our fake tree in the US when we moved to manila and don’t have one since then. it’s a bummer but we usually travel during this time so we don’t miss it much. this year is different so maybe i should get a small one.
it’s amazing that 2020 is ending… i still can’t believe it.
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Looking gorgeous!! How fun to be in the holiday spirit already. I think we need it more than ever this year.
We have a strict rule in our household – no celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Full stop! It’s a hard one to abide by – especially this year, I feel. We always do Thanksgiving on Saturday because everyone here works on Thursday, and since we’re the only people who celebrate, we have to do the whole thing. I mean all of it, including making the cream of mushroom soup base for the green bean casserole (no Campbells soup here!).It takes almost a full week to make it all – I was busy this morning pureeing pumpkin for the pie, and will make the pie crust by hand tomorrow (no ready bake pie crusts here, either…) So it feels like the holidays are here for us too, even though we are still in shades of brown and orange instead of red and green.
We are team real tree – from our own land! S and the kids have already been out and have scouted this year’s victim so we are all set to go. Next Sunday the tree will come in, lights on, ornaments up, music blaring, the whole kit and caboodle, and it will be a Christmas wonderland in here up until sometime in the new year. Can’t wait! 🙂
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I generally don’t really decorate before Thanksgiving but more so because I feel that I “shouldn’t”. In actuality I like to, because I enjoy extending the season. So, over the years, sometimes I just go ahead and do it. Like this year. 🙂
And are you sure you are my sister?? Handmade pie crust and pureeing pumpkin?? Did you secretly grow up in a different household or a different time period?! Hahaha.
Looking forward to seeing the special tree the girls picked out!
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