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Thankful for it All

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What a wonderful holiday weekend we've had so far! Last Saturday night, we went with a few neighbors to check out the tree lighting ceremony in downtown Rosemount. It had a quintessential small-town feel to it...a lovely tree, neighbors gathered on the lawn, a small speech by the mayor, a song or two by a few different choirs, and then we wrapped up with cider and cookies for all. The kids enjoyed it (Ava tolerated it, at best, lol) and it was neat to be taking part in a holiday tradition in town.




I was on PTO on Wednesday, and spent most of the day running errands (Christmas shopping as well as Thanksgiving food pickup) and prepping to host turkey day. It was one of those super productive days where I was really tired by the end, and might have fallen asleep by 8:30pm. Ha!

G was trying to be creepy here...he succeeded!


Taking a break to play some Roblox


I bought some amazing cookies at Crumbl...the line is usually out the door, but when I drove by on Wednesday, I spotted a rare opportunity to pick up some of this deliciousness!



On Thanksgiving morning, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and then started getting all of the food into the oven to feed the masses! Okay, okay, we didn't have a TON of people over, but it did take some coordination to make sure that all of the food was going to be done at the same time. I ended up pulling out the china that Scott inherited from his mom. It's a lovely set that his dad had bought his mom while he was overseas in the Navy. I'm so glad we are able to put it to good use.

My parents and Scott's mom joined us for dinner and conversation. Ava put on a trumpet performance, and there was never a quiet moment (except for when we were eating!) It was wonderful to be able to gather again as a family, and spend this time together. 

And then...Deb took Ava home for an overnight visit and some Black Friday shopping! Ava had a blast getting up super early (before 5am) and hitting the stores with her grandma, as well as going out for both breakfast and lunch. Lucky girl! Ava came home with a bunch of new items, and even bought little gifts for each of us. She's so generous!

While Ava was gone, I started to decorate the house for Christmas (I just couldn't do it before Thanksgiving), and once Ava came back home, we decorated the Christmas tree. It's SO nice that I can hand off the ornaments to the kids, and they can put them on the tree. I did minimal repositioning, so they are clearly getting better at not grouping everything together!


G has a whole line-up of Christmas movies that he wants to watch, but on Friday night, both kids agreed on Home Alone. No devices allowed, just quality family time, watching a favorite flick.

I found them competing in some sort of Pop It contest on Saturday morning. I didn't ask for details, but was really happy that they weren't arguing



Now that turkey day is done, it's time to turn the attention to Christmas. Most of the gift shopping has been completed, so now it's on to wrapping (UGH) and sending out the Christmas cards that just came on Friday. It's so much easier to spread it out through the season, so it's not a mad rush at the end. 

I'm pretty sure that George will be arriving here soon, so watch for his adventures in some upcoming posts. And, Advent starts on Sunday, so I'm excited to follow along with the class I registered for online at church, as well as light the candle(s) each night. We may even break the tradition of taking down the tree on New Years...just so we can fully celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. Why not extend it just a little bit longer? I'm hoping to focus a bit more on the reason for the season this year, and not just the commercial part of it.

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