I enjoyed 4 whole days off of work for the Thanksgiving holiday, and it was a whirlwind weekend. I won't bore you with tons of details, so here's a quick recap:
Thursday: Thanksgiving! I started the day by running in the Gobble Gallop 5k in Duluth. I have decided that while it was fun, next year I'm just going to participate on my treadmill. It was about 2 degrees at the start of the race, and really just too cold! My friend Carol ran it, her first 5k, and did great!
 |
| So proud! |
Then I made a mad dash to get home, get showered, and get our food together for Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully Travis prepped the sweet potato casserole while I was gone, so all I had to do was add the pecan topping. Pecan and marshmallows. Because I'm an equal-love kind of gal. I also made broccoli casserole and a pecan pie that I made the day before. This was the first time I've made pecan pie, and it was delicious! I added chocolate chips to the bottom, because I believe that no dessert is complete without a little chocolate. Anyway, it was hit!
For some reason, we have zero pictures of our family from Thanksgiving. Giant fail! But trust me, there was food and family and football. Lots of each.
Friday: On Friday we got to relax a bit and recover from all that food. I am totally one of "those" people that decorate early for Christmas, so Friday night we put up our Christmas tree after dinner.
The first year or so after I had Emily, this was something I did by myself, in a hurry, during nap time. Now that she's a little older, I love having her help decorate! She goes gaga over all the ornaments, and sometimes acts like it's a race to get all the ornaments up on tree. She just gets so excited! She also likes to put all the ornaments in the same general area on the tree, sometimes two on a branch. Mom does a little rearranging after we're "done", but it's so much fun!
Saturday: On Saturday, Emily and I went shopping for our Angel Tree kid. If you're not familiar with this program, it's usually funded through the Salvation Army. Parents in need of a little help around the holidays can register their child(ren). They create an angel tag with the child's age, clothing sizes, and interests/wants. Our Salvation Army requests that you get your child two outfits and two toys or interest items (for older kids this can be something like a video game, DVD, make up, whatever).
Our Walmart has a tree with the tags on them, but my employer also takes about 20 or so tags each year to hang on our office Christmas tree. Travis and I have been adopting an Angel Tree kid for the past 4 years. Things were a little tighter this year, but we were blessed with some additional funds via me winning my work football pool for the week. What better way to spend some of that money by giving back to someone who really needs it? I love doing this with Emily so she can start to learn about giving to others.
I also got all of the rest of my Christmas decorations up during nap time. Mama score!
Sunday: Sunday was a true lazy day for us. We did nothing but finish some household chores, laundry, and hung around the house. I did get my Christmas cards made and picked them up from Walgreens. We got all our pictures back from our photographer late Saturday night, so it was fun going through all of them Sunday morning. But it was hard narrowing down which pictures to use for our cards! Too many cute pictures of my kid to choose from!
We have a pot luck tonight for our ECFE group at school so I'm making Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels and Candy Cane Oreos, which we made Sunday. The Oreos are seriously so easy, but I used Andes peppermint bark bits instead of Hershey's peppermint kisses. Cheaper!
Our temps continued to be frigid over the long weekend, so Sunday night I wanted something warm and comforting. This Gouda and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese really hit the spot! I'm sure it's the complete opposite of healthy, but I ran 8 miles yesterday morning so I felt it was justified. Of course I had the meal planned well in advance, so it was good motivation to put my shoes on and bank some calories!
 |
| Cheesy bacony goodness! |
So that was our weekend. We are ready for the holiday season and all that it entails. Bring it on!
How was your Thanksgiving? Did you decorate for the holidays yet?
I love your tree! It looks great. Aren't Thanksgiving turkey trots so much fun? I'm glad you did one! Happy December :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Delete