Monday, December 1, 2014

Things I've Learned During Thanksgiving Break.

This weekend has been unseasonably warm, which our family was super excited about. We celebrated by spending most of our time outdoors. Of course, with it being Arkansas, our warm front is followed by a pretty strong cold front, complete with freezing rain. {cue sad trombone noise}. I thought I'd share some of the things I learned during Thanksgiving break.
  • Having one kid in school really does lighten the load of three kids. Sure, our weeks are filled with car line and school drop off and such, but only having two kids at home lessens the bickering and fighting. In some ways, I was glad to have days where we could just stay in our pjs with nothing on the agenda. But, I found that no agenda often meant more crazy, which I am not a fan of. 
  • I am egregiously unprepared when it comes to writing down what I need for Thanksgiving dinner. I made 3 trips to Walmart in a 2 day period. 
  • Hosting Thanksgiving is a lot easier when your house is not flooded. Thankful that we had no thawing out of turkey flooding incidents like last year. 
  • Creating the Thanksgiving meal takes planning, and there is a calm before the storm, ala 10 minutes before everything is finished. It's like you're sitting there thinking "man, I got this grown up thing." and then BAM. Everything needs stirred and finished and broiled and, HOLY CRAP I JUST BURNED THE MARSHMALLOWS BECAUSE THE STUFFING NEEDED TO BE FLUFFED. 
  • I can survive Black Friday. I have never participated in Black Friday until this year. Partly because ALL THE CRAZIES. And partly because I just haven't seen the need to do it. But when Brayden started making his Christmas list and I realized it paired nicely with all of the toy sales at Walmart for Black Friday, I knew I was having to dive in full force. I actually did really well, had no anxiety attacks (I did almost start crying when people were shoving my buggy out of the way to get to the next thing) and will probably do it again if it means I can get everything my kid wants for 50% off (or more). (I also have realized that people get REALLY excited about sheets and DVD sales).
  • The Hogs play with my heart. After having two weeks of back to back shut outs of ranked teams, the Hogs totally deflated on me. Friday was a sad day for sure.
  • this may be my favorite Christmas yet. Christmas is about 482717 times better when you have kids. This year both Brayden and Connor are both SUPER into everything. Christmas music, Christmas tree decorations, our Elf on the Shelf, Santa, etc. It's awesome. I just love being able to celebrate with them and create memories. 
  • family time is becoming more fun. We went adventuring as a family and it actually didn't feel like a chore to get everyone out of the house and rounded up to go to the park. I hope this is a sign of things to come... because I am a fan.
We went adventuring in the woods together and actually got a pic of all 5 of us. Yay for warm weather and family!

And that's about all I learned. Or at least all I can remember. Yesterday we started advent, welcomed our Elf, Bonner, back to our home and broke out matching Christmas Jammies. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, y'all!
Matching Christmas jammies (and a reindog) make me smile. #MboysChristmas2014
 

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