Well, Thanksgiving is over. I managed to not gain any weight. Woo! We spent Thanksgiving at a friend's house, which meant that all I was in charge of cooking was the turkey, my famous totally-delicious-but-totally-bad-for-you-mac-n-cheese, and my stepmom's glorious three bean salad. Everything on the table was SO good and I stuffed myself silly. Then we braved Black Friday and went to a few stores to get a jump on Christmas shopping. It was insane... especially with two kids under 4. Mostly, we ended up just buying things online. Remember to shop from small business and buy handmade as much as you can this year. Do what you can for the economy and help the little guy this year!
Now that we've passed this holiday, we're on to the next one! My favorite...
Christmas!
We lost most of our decorations in the flood that filled our basement with 3 feet of water. Luckily we haven't accumulated much yet since we have only been together for 4 years. But, so that Squirrel Monkey could take part this year, I made a tree out of foam sheets that she could decorate by herself. She's having a blast starting and stopping when she pleases, slowly turning the bare tree into a festive decoration!
Also, this year, we started a new tradition of an advent paper chain. Each day has an activity to get us in the Christmas Spirit. I included activities such as, bake cookies, get family packages and cards together and send, color a Christmas picture, drink hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie, wrap presents, drive around and look at lights, make Christmas decorations, call Grandparents and sing a Christmas song, do a random act of kindness, etc. I love this idea. We'll keep reporting on how it's going as we work through the days. Squirrel is super excited!
This is a little off topic for this post, but I made some boiled eggs to go with our dinner tonight and upon seeing this on my counter I had to snap a picture. Aren't they beautiful? I'm awfully thankful for friends with too many eggs from their lovely chickens. Nothing like free-range and local! :) And there's truly nothing like having friends who share their bounty. That speckled egg in the middle is just gorgeous!!
~MMM
