I am hoping to post at least 3 posts today to get caught up, so keep coming back to check in! :-)
We all know that I LOVE holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, but honestly, Thanksgiving is my very most favorite! I love that it is a day of being Thankful, seeing all of our family, eating my favorite meal of the year, and in all honesty, what better way to end a holiday than to spend quality time with your Mom at the mall! :-) Last year we decided to change our traditions up a little and host a "big old fashioned family Thanksgiving" at our house. It worked out really well, so we did it again this year.
While Michael smoked the turkey and I got everything ready, Nicholas finally fell in love with the Macy's parade. It meant so much to me to pass down the tradition of pumpkin muffins and watching the parade to my child this year.
Because we have one big meal, I set up our dining room table and a fold out table to hold everyone. (Don't worry, I reminded Michael the entire time that it is time to build again! Haha!)
As always, Michael smoked an unbelievably tasty turkey!
My mom and I split up the cooking. I did casseroles, she did pies, maccaroni, and dressing. I could seriously eat this meal everyday!
When we moved my Nana, I got several of her holiday items and truly, it wasn't Thanksgiving again until I rescued this guy from storage a couple of years ago!
We are so thankful our two families like each other and are able to share holidays. I'm so thankful for them all, especially these two turkeys...
After everyone left, I cleaned up and got ready to kick off the Christmas season at the mall! Before I go on, let me say that I know it is controversial to shop on Thanskgiving, and I get that, but it is something that my mom and I have enjoyed doing together the last 3 years.
My main goal this year was to hit the Belk $19.99 boot sale. This was the view as I came down the escalator at 9:00, 3 hours into the sale...
After finally fighting my way in, I found 2 pair for a total of $43! j. Crew and NY and Co also had some awesome deals! We shopped until 3:00 and I finally got into bed at 3:17. Too bad at 3:42 I heard crying from Nicholas' room and ended up spending my 4 hours of sleep in his bed with him! Ha!
After my little nap, we got the Christmas stuff from the attic, put the tree together to find out it had finally met its demise (at least with me. I don't string lights and I sure wasn't spending the time to find the burned out bulbs in a 9ft tree!). After a quick trip to Walmart (yes, on Black Friday, which may not have been my best idea!) we went to Steak and Shake where little man experienced his first peppermint shake. His words... "Oh Mom! This is like christmas in a cup!" Lol! I just love him!
We came home and finished his tree. He is SO into Christmas this year! He decorated his tree almost completely by himself! All he let me do was a few special things near the top.
I also put up 2 other trees along with my one big one, but I'll let you wait until I do a tour next week to see them! :-)
On Saturday morning Ernie the Elf came and brought breakfast! Ernie has been very busy at our house this year! I'll do a post after Christmas of all of his adventures!
By the time I went back to work on Monday our house was decorated, my Christmas village was displayed and I was ready to get back to a routine!
