- I utterly failed NaBloPoMo. What the hell. I'm not sure you could even say I started!
- I utterly failed at my daily Thankful posts. Again, lots of times I intentionally made a mental note of things I was thankful for (actually I bet on a daily basis!) but I never made the time to write it out.
Let's see... what were the "big things" in November...
Christmas Parade in Jackson
This is the third (or 4th?) year that we've gone to the Christmas Parade downtown and I swear to goodness we get amnesia every year about how darn cold it actually is. This year was really windy, and I didn't have a hat or even a really warm coat that actually zipped/buttoned up without making me look like a stuffed sausage. (the coat I wore fit, but wasn't that warm). The boys were bundled, but still cold. And stupid me... wore shoes instead of my warm Uggs. My feet FROZE and it wasn't until we were walking back to the car I thought WTF... I have BOOTS that are so WARM! Next year we vow to put the boys in snowpants and bring blankets and hot cocoa. Yeah. I'm pretty sure we say that every year!
Regardless of the cold, the boys had so much fun. This year the floats were really great as well! I think this was the best year yet. It cracked me up that the things the boys enjoyed the most (and ooohed and aaahed over the most) were the tractors that were in the parade and the race cars. I guess it shouldn't surprise me though! We intended to meet the Dawson's downtown but they were unable to get across the road to our meeting spot, but we did end up next to a boy that Porter knew from school. He had a lot of fun watching the parade with him.
Next year.... warmer clothes and blankets!
Thanksgiving
This probably should have its own little post but I'm lumping it in with "November". Again, we had dinner at our house. One of my favorite holidays because both sides of our family gather together under one roof. I was literally barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen all day and by dinner time I was ready to just stuff my face and then go lay down. In which I did do both those things quite well. Everything really went off well... I was able to fit our new kids patio table in the dining room with the kids table from the playroom so everyone was able to eat in one room. I even got crafty the night before and decorated the kids table up!
Another favorite about Thanksgiving... the boys and all their cousins are together! I am so thankful that they have so many cousins that are around their age, and that they love them! I almost feel bad for Baby Girl because she'll be at least 4 years younger than everyone else. However, I'm also so excited to see how adored she is because I know all these girl cousins are going to eat her up!
Annual Shopping with Lori
Ohhhh this year was a bust out! Just like the past.... oh 5 years or so, Lori and I headed to Ann Arbor on Black Friday to hit up the resale shops. We actually only went to one because I spent SOOO much money on darling little girl clothes (and everything was 25% off... BONUS!). I walked in the door and said to Lori.... "This is the day I've been waiting for for sooo long!" I was finally able to dig into those bazillions of girl clothes for myself!
We spent a good 2 hours in the resale shop (some of which were spent consoling a crying pregnant woman who burst into tears talking to us about how disappointed she was to be having another girl...) and then we went to Red Robin for lunch. YUM! We also hit up Pier 1, Babies R Us (got more clothes... some pink Avent bottles and a bath thingy) and also JoAnn to get 2 bolts (12 yards) of fabric for the nursery curtains.
Our evening wasn't done there.... we had mostaccioli for dinner and then Lori and I went back out shopping to the Toy House. We then ran home, packed up the families and headed to the Christmas Lights at the fairgrounds. This has become an annual tradition for us as well and I am always amazed at how well done the lights are! Just when you think you've seen so many, there are more!
I truly am thankful for these special shopping days with Lori. It isn't the same without Cathy, and I will always hold those memories dear, but I do love that Lori and I are continuing the tradition.
Decorating the Tree
This year we had talked about getting back into the "real tree" mode for Christmas and take the boys to a tree farm to cut down a tree. However... I really wanted to get decorated for Christmas over the long weekend and we were kind of feeling like we wanted to just get the tree up so we went with the fake tree... again. Maybe next year?
Just like last year, I realized that decorating the tree is not something I should do with the kids awake. Let me rephrase that. I should get the nitty gritty done (tree up, lights on) while the boys are in bed or away... and then let them dig through the boxes of ornaments. They are always so excited to see all the ornaments they're digging through boxes and making messes and carrying ornaments all around the house. It drives me nuts. Also- thank goodness for the unbreakable ornaments that are ALSO beautiful. Not only did the boys drop a ton, but I did as well. One special ornament managed to get broken (a windmill from Holland) but lo and behold I had actually purchased 2 on that vacay so it didn't break my heart too much. After all, it was an accident.
So there we have it... Hello Thanksgiving, love ya, muah, see ya later and Hellooooo Christmas!
First Snow of the Year
The last day of November was a SNOW DAY! Yeah! While snow days used to be so dreaded to me (not because I don't want to get to stay home... but because I don't get paid if I'm not working)... but I've come to embrace them. I love the unexpected day off of work to hang out at home with my boys in our pj's.
The boys were SO excited to see snow on the ground. I think we got around 5 inches or so? Maybe? They were up at 7 and were begging me to go outside. The sun wasn't even up! However, by 7:30am they had me out of bed and they were running around the house in their underwear screaming with excitement. We all bundled up and were out in the snow by 7:45am. WHEW! Both of the boys loved shoveling the sidewalk and Porter ended up shoveling almost half of our driveway. They spent a good 2 hours outside playing! The rest of our day was spent inside by the fire, watching movies and doing a little laundry. Perfect, perfect day.
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