Weekend Recap – Thanksgiving and Christmas Tree Hunting

What a week/weekend, eh?
There was so much goodness, I just had to document all of it!  I’ll try not to be too wordy…
Let’s go back to Wednesday.  The kids had a half day of school and I ran around baking, cleaning and packing up to leave.  We met up with Jon’s parents at our favorite Mediterranean restaurant in Flint.  From there we drove to the in-laws.  We settled in for the night and the kids loved on their cat, Meatloaf.
The next morning was Thanksgiving!  I was able to catch some of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!  I did, however, miss most of it as I went off to take a shower, get ready for the day and hang out with the kiddos.
Jon could be found like this for more time than I care to admit.  It was cracking me up!  So many times I’d turn to talk to him and he’d be wearing his VR headset and flailing about…
Eliza and Henry got all dressed for Thanksgiving dinner.
I made sure I brought back their hats they made at school…

We had a bake-off!
My sister-in-law suggested that everyone make and bring a dessert.  With all of our traveling and having contractors in our house it became a tad difficult to really go all out.
I did manage to bake two loaves of cream cheese chocolate chip pumpkin bread, which wasn’t super messy or too difficult to make…thank goodness.
I also found these little brownie turkeys on Pinterest and instead of baking brownies I just purchased everything pre-made.
Easy peasy.
The kids and I assembled these sweet turkeys a few hours before dinner.  I think everyone was supposed to guess who brought what as a dessert and vote from there for “best dessert.”
Oops!

We managed to get a Thanksgiving Day picture…

Henry made signs for all the tables (I helped him with some of the spelling – no way this boy knows how to spell ‘recipe’ yet 😉 )…

More pictures…

Couldn’t forget this little nugget…

All of the desserts!  Yum!

We played the game, “The Worst Case Scenario.”  I feel like I’m a pretty good listening to my intuition in social settings, but this game had me like, “Wwwhhhaaaattt??”  I was awful, just awful at it.  I feel like everything I thought I knew or have ever read has been lies.  All lies…  😉

After dinner and a fun family game, we headed over to my sister’s house.
It was my parents’ first year not hosting a Thanksgiving meal.  Our oldest brother took a hard fall about three weeks ago and has been in a coma and on a ventilator ever since.  If you’re the praying type, we’ll take some prayers.  🙂
My sister’s dinner was just what our parents needed!  They’ve been practically living at the hospital.  I hadn’t seen my parents since August, so it was nice to see their faces and give them some much needed hugs.  🙂
Jon with our sweet niece, Marian…
The party table…

The kids played, the adults visited, Jon busted out his VR headset…again… and by the next morning Elmer the Elf and his new friend, Fredric (sp?), had arrived at my sister’s house!
Fredric is new to my sister’s family!
Both elves brought Christmas shirts for all of the kids…

Henry’s cousin, Christian, walked Henry from the bedroom to the living room to see the elves!

We left my sister’s house and found some lunch.  There just happened to be a Starbuck’s where we stopped, so of course I told Jon I needed a holiday-inspired beverage!
Also, this makes two ….TWO Starbuck’s that now exist right off the expressway to and from our house to my hometown!!!  WOOHOO!!

Once we arrived home we stretched our legs, dropped off our bags, turned up the heat in the house, prepared the living room for a Christmas tree and then loaded back up in the car to go hunt for a REAL Christmas tree!!!
I’ve been wanting to do this for YEARS!!!  We went a few years ago and cut down a little three foot tree, but I wanted it to be like when I was a little girl.  When I was little we used to get the biggest and widest tree we could find!  I couldn’t wait!

Eliza had sooooo many questions.  She was not impressed at this moment…

It was really nice out, so we decided to walk back to the tree farm…which wasn’t far at all…just a tad muddy, but no biggie…

They were off…

Jon found the tree he wanted.  Umm…no.  😉

Henry was trying to sell us on this tree.  He seriously wouldn’t leave its side.

I finally convinced him to keep looking and maybe we could vote on our favorites.  He obliged.

We took a turn in a different direction and found some great looking trees.  On the way Eliza took a tumble over a tree stump.  I gave everyone the, “We don’t run through tree farms,” speech.  There are just too many stumps.
#lifelesson #themoreyouknow
Look what we found!!!
There she was!!!

It didn’t take much convincing or voting.  Everyone was all for this tree or the one next to it.  This one was a tad taller – we went for it!

Sorry Jon, I had to post this one.  Just too much fun!

Timbeeeeeeeer!

Jon taught the kids about counting the rings.  Our particular tree had twenty!
Dear tree,
Thanks for growing.  Sorry we cut you down.  We promise to love you!

We tagged our tree and headed back to home base.  😉

Henry’s hero.  All the heart eyes!!!!!!!!!

When did this child get so big??!!

Warming up by the fire…

Hot cocoa for the win!

We loaded up our tree in a rented trailer and snapped a selfie.  I absolutely love how excited everyone is in this picture!

Before buckling up in the car I managed to snap a couple pics of the kids in their new Christmas shirts…

We arrived home, Christmas tree in tow, and got to work…

We brought out all of the Christmas totes and before we knew it, the kids had found their Elf and Santa hats.  Jon told me they were already wearing them – you guys, it was the cutest thing EVER!
Oh the excitement!!!

Elf snuggles…
(Pay no attention to the mess of books in the background – it’s on my to-do list to organize – EEK!)

Playing with the nutcrackers…

I sent Jon to the store for some lights (our artificial trees are pre-lit).  I told him to get 3-4 rolls of lights.  He came home with one roll of 400 lights…as you can see it wasn’t enough.  It made for a funny, “I told you so,” moment.
I needed more lights, but the kids couldn’t wait to decorate any longer, so I let them have at it while Jon went back for more lights…

They didn’t hesitate…
They became busy little working elves…

Jon came home with more lights and I finished wrapping the tree.  The kids then continued to decorate…

As you can see the bottom part of our tree became ornament heavy.  My type-A self twitched a little, but I let it go for the night and for the next day.  They were both incredibly proud and happy of their work.  I didn’t dare change a thing…not for the next 36 hours anyway…  😉

The next day consisted or more decorating and watching Michigan lose to Ohio State.  I had to walk away from the tv on more than one occasion.  The score got so bad that Jon and I just turned off the tv and went to run errands.  Talk about disappointing.  While at the store we saw some other Michigan fans who seemed to have done the same thing…
I hope to erase the game from my memory entirely.
Elmer had also made an appearance on Saturday!  He made a mess with a popcorn explosion!
Later on Saturday night, we cozied up on the couch and watched, Home Alone!
Hurray!!!

When the movie ended we had a dance party to the music during the credits!

Then the kids pretended to fall asleep…

They may have even moved around an ornament or two before heading to bed.
My type-A, OCD self started to twitch…again, but still, I let it go and rather enjoyed the moment.
It was actually coming together quite nicely.  It just need some tweaking here and there… 😉

Sunday consisted of cleaning, laundry and re-arranging some of the ornaments.
Jon took the kids outside to watch the lava explode out of the volcano that we made a few weeks back…

AAAaaaaaaannnd here we are.
It’s Monday – we have a snow day today, our contractor will be showing up momentarily, I have a doctor’s appointment at 1:30, but the roads are terrible, so I have no idea what my plans are for the rest of the day…
If you need me, I’ll be hanging out with the kids (if they’re not next door playing 😉 ) and enjoying Cyber Monday.
Happy start to the week, friends!
Marie 🙂
I’m linking up with LindsayJohannah and Heather for Hello Monday!


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