Thanksgiving weekend

I can't believe our first long weekend of the holidays is already coming to a close. Malakai was off of school for 5 days, and Ben was off work for 4. It has been so nice having them home, especially right when I came down with a rather brutal cold. Now I just need to pray hard that everyone else stays healthy!

After 9 years of double Thanksgivings (both in one day) we decided to simplify and just do one this year. Mostly because it's easier with a baby (who isn't a fan of the car seat anyway) and partly because we wanted to stay in town. We've discussed maybe starting an every other year tradition where we rotate who we celebrate with each year. It was so restful to be able to stay at one location all day instead of having to plan to transition multiple times and figure out what to eat where and all that jazz. Packing up the kids just once to leave and once to go home was one of the best parts. We missed the other side of the family but we saw most of them the next day anyhow. 

Aurelia ate + slept through most of her first Thanksgiving, so she's already pretty much got the traditions down. The boys enjoyed playing with cousins and other relatives all day. It was a nice and relatively relaxing day. 

Normally we go get our Christmas tree a day or two after Thanksgiving but with the forecast of rain and my feeling under the weather we chose to push it back to next weekend. It also gives us more time to clear a space for the tree and pull the Christmas decor out of storage. 

Last year I made an Advent calendar for the boys that they loved. This year Malakai made a chain at Sunday school that we'll start shortening day by day. Each link has a scripture verse and activity. We should be plenty busy learning and celebrating all month long.