What’s Up Wednesday - November 2019

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If you're looking for a weekend post today, come back tomorrow because it'll be up then!  We were busy hosting guests the last few days so I postponed my weekly update to tomorrow.  Now let’s recap November…

What We’re Eating This Week

This week is going to be crazy – we’ll be having house guests the first part of the week and then it’s Thanksgiving so the only definite meals are our Thanksgiving celebrations.  Other than that, I’m not planning a set menu because I honestly don’t even know what to plan for just yet… 

Mon – Guests in town so not sure yet…

Tue – Breakfast??

Wed – Out maybe??

Thu – Thanksgiving feast with my FIL and my fam!!  Yaaaas!

Fri – Out?

Sat – Thanksgiving feast with my MIL and step-FIL!!

Sun – ?? 

What I’m Reminiscing About

I’ve definitely been reminiscing about Thanksgivings past.  It’s my second favorite holiday, but I almost love it as much as Christmas.  We get to spend a lot of time with family, we get to eat a ton of yummy food, and we get to go to bed that evening knowing that the Christmas season starts the next day.  There’s not a better feeling than that!  Christmas Day is wonderful, but it’s always a little bittersweet for me because I go to bed that night knowing that my favorite time of year is over.  On Thanksgiving we get to go to bed knowing that there’s still a lot of magic to look forward to!

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

What I’m Loving

Olivia is a writing and drawing machine these days, and I’m often stumbling upon her creations.  A couple of weeks ago she decided to write a song and it was about the darn cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  She wrote all the lyrics herself and she even sang it to a tune she made up.  To translate:

I am awakened.

I am awakened.

Oh the grass is tall.

Oh the sky is blue.

Tonight oooohhhh I am awakened.

Lol.  Y’all, she even put a breve over the “o” in tall to indicate that it was a short vowel pronunciation.  I cannot even deal with this cuteness.  And if you think this is cute, you should hear her sing the song!  <3

I also came across this drawing just after Halloween.  My mother-in-law always sends cards in the mail to each of the kids for all of the holidays, and Olivia had drawn her own version of the card.  So stinking cute.

What We’ve Been Up To

The question here is what have we not been up to?  Because we’ve pretty much been up to everything!  We had B’s fam over for my nephew’s birthday early in the month, Olivia got her ears pierced, B and I saw Alejandro Aranda in concert, we had the fall carnival at the kids’ school, we went to the Georgia vs. Missouri game in Athens, we decorated the whole house for Christmas, we’ve had a couple of movie nights in, I had a movie date with my mom, aunt, and cousin, we went to Winterfest at our local university, I went to a volunteer thank you dinner to wrap up the fall carnival, we celebrated Thanksgiving at the kids’ school with three different events, and we hosted Brian’s cousin and her family earlier this week when they visited.  We were supposed to go to the Georgia vs. Texas A&M game last weekend, but we decided to cancel due to the weather.  Whew.  Recaps are below for most of the month and our weekly recap for this past week will be up tomorrow!

Our Week – The One with Jacob’s Championship Win and a Very Cold Halloween

Our Week – The One with Olivia’s Ear Piercing, a Concert, the Fall Carnival, and a Georgia Game

Our Week – The One with All the Christmas Decorating

What I’m Dreading

Nothing!  My heart is light because my favorite time of year is here!

What I’m Working On

It was another busy month as you can see, I’ve only been working on a few things outside of my normal day-to-day stuff…

1. I spent the first week of the month prepping for the fall carnival at the kids’ school.  Lots of time was spent at the school pulling stuff out of our storage shed and putting it all together and then cleaning it up afterward.
2. My main focus this month was to get the whole house decorated for Christmas.  I managed to get the kids’ trees up in their rooms, the tree up in our master bedroom, the tree up in my office, and I also put out all of the decorations in our main living area.  The only thing left to do is to put up our big tree in the living room and put out the outdoor decorations (which B will have to do).  We always do that the weekend after Thanksgiving, so it’s coming right up!
3. I’ve also been going gangbusters on Christmas shopping.  I’ve already purchased gifts for many of the people on our list, and I’ve also bought a good bit of the stuff for the kids.  My goal is to try to knock it all out as early as possible in December so I can have more time to relax later in the month.
4. I always tend to be the planner when it comes to get-togethers with friends so I’m currently working on planning our annual girls’ Christmas party as well as planning a Christmas dinner for all of my old co-workers who are now all scattered among numerous jobs.  We’ve been getting together every year for Christmas for 15 years and it’s so nice that we’ve continued the tradition all these years after so many of us have left the original job that brought us together in the first place.
5. I’m also working ahead on blog posts for December so I can hopefully take it easy in late December.  My only problem is that there is so much stuff that I want to post in December that I’m going to end up posting pretty much every day Monday – Friday.  Face palm. 
6. And as always I’m blogging away.  Here are some highlights from the month…

Five on Friday – November Goals

What I Ordered from Amazon in October 2019

Holiday Gift Guide 2019 – For the Big Kids

Holiday Gift Guide 2019 – For the Babies

Holiday Gift Guide 2019 – For the Teenagers

Holiday Gift Guide 2019 – For the Ladies

Holiday Gift Guide 2019 – For the Guys

Five on Friday – This is My Grown-Up Christmas List for 2019

A Rainbow Christmas Tree for My Office

What I Wore – October Recap

How to Organize Holiday Cards

What I’m Excited About

I’m most excited about the official start of the Christmas season.  We have lots of fun stuff planned but this year I’m also hoping to put lots of padding in there for some serious downtime for Christmas movie watching, snuggling, and being lazy.  I think the thing I’m most excited about is Christmas Break and no more school for two whole weeks!  We’re all in dire need of a break from homework and lunch-making!

What I’m Watching/Reading

Watching – Pretty much the same as last month… college football, Gossip Girl, This is Us, A Million Little Things, Modern Family, and Shark Tank.  We finished Living With Yourself on Netflix and we just started a new Netflix original show called Raising Dion.  My gosh, I love Michael B. Jordan.

Reading – Nothing.  #AintNobodyGotTimeFoDat

What I’m Listening To

Um, Christmas music?!  Not much else I’d rather listen to this time of year than that!  That said, this year I’m particularly loving the Johnnyswim Christmas album that I downloaded last year.  It’s good stuff.

What I’m Wearing

All of my snuggly stuff – cardigans, sweaters, boots, scarves, and a whoooole lot of college football gear.  Ahhhh.  I swear, I was meant for this kind of weather.  I just love being cozy!!

What I’m Doing This Weekend

All of the Thanksgiving festivities!!  We’ll be heading to the country club for Thanksgiving lunch with my father-in-law tomorrow followed by dinner with my extended family at my aunt and uncle’s house.  Then Friday will be our day to go and get a Christmas tree, get it decorated, and get all of our outdoor Christmas décor up.  We’ll probably finish off the evening with a Christmas movie and some snuggles. 

Then Saturday we’ll be doing a big Thanksgiving feast at my mother-in-law’s house and then our family of four will be heading back home to watch the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game and be lazy at home the rest of the day.  Sunday I don’t know what we’ll be up to, but it probably won’t be much other than hanging with family and doing fun stuff!  Sounds like heaven!  Thanksgiving weekend is probably my favorite weekend of the entire year!

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month

Everything – Christmas parades, tree lightings, our annual girls’ Christmas party, a work dinner with my old coworkers, Christmas movies, hot chocolate, driving around and looking at Christmas lights.  This time of year has always been so magical for me and even as an adult it’s still magical.  I know that’s not always the case for everyone, and I pray it stays that way for me.  December truly is the best month of all.  <3

What Else Is New

This year I started rounding up old photographs of family members from our past, and I framed them to create a collection on the DVD dresser in our living room.  So far I have an old picture of my grandparents on the beach when they were young, pictures of both sets of my father-in-law’s grandparents (so B’s great-grandparents), and a picture of my Dad’s father when he was young.  My Mama Cass (my mom’s mom) recently brought a copy of this gem to me to add to my collection and I couldn’t love it more!  It’s my Mama Cass’s mother and father on their wedding day on April 3, 1913.  So they are my great grandparents.  I cannot wait to get it framed and add it to my collection!

Today we’re hoping to take the kids to see Frozen 2 so wish us luck!!  I’m sure the theater is going to be a zoo!  I THINK I’M AS EXCITED AS THE KIDS ARE TO SEE IT!  Haha.  Happy Wednesday, y’all!

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