Holiday Prep

This year I'm trying to get a jump-start on the holidays.  I've been making lists for crafts to do with the girls,  lists for Santa and family gifts, parties we want to attend, get-togethers we want to host.  Yesterday we dressed up and I took some photos to start working on our Christmas card.  I'm also starting to wonder what we are going to do for Julia's birthday party in early January that she asks about every day.  She is definitely more excited about her birthday and party than Christmas, but don't let that fool you because her list for Santa this year is getting pretty long!  With all this planning I'm hoping I'm not as behind as I usually am for the holidays - fingers crossed.   

We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year and it will be the first time I'm making a turkey.  Since the turkey is generally the start of the show on Thanksgiving I'm hoping it will be a whopping success.  If not I'll just add extra gravy to save the day!  I'm still working on the menu but I'm planning on keeping it pretty traditional - turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, veggies and rolls with pie for dessert.  Emma has off the week of Thanksgiving and Chris and Julia have off on Wed, Thurs, and Friday so I'm looking forward to the extra time with them.  I think it will be nice to have some help on Wed, too, to get the house and food prepped so we don't have to do it on Thursday.  

When I was younger my Dad always took me and my sister to the Thanksgiving parade in town and I have so many memories of those days.  I vividly remember how there wasn't a store open, not even a convenience store!, that day and no bathrooms to relieve our tiny bladders.  As the years went on McDonalds started opening and we were able to get some hot chocolate to warm us up after the cold morning at the parade.  These days things are different with so much open on Thanksgiving and I have mixed feelings about that - it's nice to have the convenience, but not so great that so many people aren't home with their families.  This year (weather permitting) Chris is planning to take the girls to the parade!  I'm so happy for them and hope they love it as much as I did, especially the finale when Santa and his elves make an appearance.  Having them at the parade will give me a bit of time to cook a turkey and other fun stuff at home.

I found a few crafts that I'm going to make with the girls.  In the past we had projects we tried to finish all in the same sitting.  They usually ended up with me finishing most of the projects after the girls were d.o.n.e.  Lately I've taken to presenting the project we are going to make and spreading the steps to complete it over a few different craft sessions and Julia was amenable to this change.  This change has make crafting with the girls much more enjoyable for me.  I'll post photos of the projects as we complete them.