I have a hard time focusing on Thanksgiving. As long as Steve and I have been married, Thanksgiving has also included an "early Christmas" with one side of the family, so it's never just been about getting together and giving thanks. In my mind, I'm already halfway to Christmas and presents and decorations.
Because of Steve's work schedule at his new company, we had to tell our families that we were staying in Georgia for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That decision made me a little excited and very nervous at the same time. I am so excited for Bella to experience the anticipation and joy of Christmas in our own home this year, but I was also a little nervous that celebrating wouldn't feel real without our families.
Here's the fun, unexpected part: since we aren't able to go anywhere for Christmas, both of our families are coming to us! We'll be hosting Steve's parents for about nine days at the beginning of December, and my family for about five days at the end of December. Stuff a few Christmas parties in-between for good measure and the month of December is going to be a very fun, special time for us! (I'm also imagining the spa day I'm going to need on January 1st!)
Mel and I are cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year, and we'll be hosting some friends who don't have family around either. We've been spending the last few weeks poring over cookbooks and food magazines, looking for new recipes to try!
The first sign that Thanksgiving dinner is rapidly approaching - letting pieces of bread dry out on the counter! My favorite addition to the Thanksgiving recipes that I grew up with has been Steve's mom's stuffing recipe. It's so incredibly yummy!
I like to have all of my Christmas decorations up at the very beginning of December, but I didn't want to have to worry about doing anything while Steve's family is here, so I've been working on Christmas preparations for weeks and storing them away for easy access as soon as Thanksgiving is over.
Hopefully, if the "busy work" is done, it will make it much easier to decorate and get ready the week after Thanksgiving. This year we're planning to read a book each night with Bella, so I have all of her Christmas-themed books wrapped and ready to go.
This is my favorite Christmas project and I will definitely be posting about it later on! I created an advent calendar for Bella out of Christmas socks. There are 24 socks, and each day has a different activity on it. There are some silly ones, like "paint your fingernails in Christmas colors" and some more important ones, like "decorate the Christmas tree". I even tried to make sure that some of the best activities would fall on the days that Steve's family is here! I've got to admit, I'm really proud of this project and I can't wait to do this with Bella!
The corner of my room is stuffed with gifts for the girls, friends, Steve's coworkers, and grandparents. A lot of my gifts are homemade this year, which can require a little more hands-on time, so I tried to do as much as possible ahead of time. I can't wait to post about the grandparent gifts that Steve and I worked on!
I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas being an incredible time with our family this year, and I can't wait to experience it all in our own home!
No comments:
Post a Comment