Thanksgiving Break

I unintentionally took a little blogging break for the last couple of weeks. I have experienced a lot of loss in the last year and a half (more on that another time) and the last couple of weeks have been surprisingly overwhelming with approaching anniversaries, some firsts, and the colder weather/shorter days... so I have some posts to catch up on, but first Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, we always do a large family gathering. We ate an early dinner and hung out for most of the afternoon/evening then had another meal of turkey sandwiches and leftovers. Cora ran around with her cousins all day so I barely even saw her. Ida was a little bit clingier, but managed to get in a good nap/cuddle and has been warming up a lot to family. We loved getting to spend the day relaxing with family.

I made skyline dip and my cucumber bacon bites, which I had to check my blog for my recipe because I couldn't remember how to make them. I let Cora taste test the bites earlier in the morning and was begging for them all day long. Luckily, I had some extra dip and cucumbers so we could have it the following day.

Friday and the following weekend was spent mostly around the house. Since we bought our house, I've found that I really love being a homebody... especially in the winter. My aunt gave me the turkey carcass and I spent most of Friday making turkey broth and turkey noodle bean soup. This was my first attempt and now I can't believe I've been throwing away all the vegetable clippings and leftover bones. 

During most of my soup making, I had Ida napping on in the ergobaby. Cora was a little jealous so she kept asking if I could carry her around on my back when Ida was finished. While the limit of our ergobaby is around 45lbs (she is about 50lbs), I was still able to comfortably carry Cora around for a bit. It was so funny because she is soo tall and her legs were all over the place, but I was definitely feeling nostalgic about carrying her around when she was a little babe.

Over the weekend, our Elf on the Shelf made an appearance. The last couple of years we've just hung him on our tree and haven't really been into it, but I decided I would see how the girls liked it and so far they have been wowed by the magical elf. One of the days, our elf was sitting on the beaded garland and fell over into a lying position while Cora was in the room. She was in awe and couldn't believe that he laid down while she was in the room. So far, our elf has just moved around each night (except I forgot last night) and will hopefully be bringing some cool treats or craftivities for us over the weekends.

On Saturday, the girls and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby with my aunt and she got me started with some embroidery. We spent a lot of time walking around the store looking at basically every single thing including all of the Christmas stuff.

We also did some gingerbread cookie decorating later in the break, but most of the weekend was spent being lazy around the house. Ida is really into having hot chocolate lately, so we had lots of that through the weekend. I love our sweet little hot chocolate dates where she'll drink and chat the whole time.

We had a great lazy Thanksgiving break. I'm thankful for so many things in my life, but family is for sure the top of my list. I loved getting to spend all the extra time over break with them and it is getting me really excited for December and Christmas break.>