Thanksgiving is always such a fun day with my family. We eat, we talk... there's lots of good food and good wine - and everyone is relaxed. My parents set a beautiful table for us complete with my maternal grandmother's crystal water goblets, my paternal grandparent's silver flatware and their own china place settings. There are plenty of beautiful fall colors in the candles and flowers. The house smells amazing and we often sit at the table long after all the food has been consumed just talking and enjoying each other's company (the kids have all eaten and escaped to the other room). Sometime in the afternoon, we take a walk over to the Circle K to get hot cocoa (or frozen drinks, as this year it was pretty warm outside!). I can't remember when we started doing this, but it has become a tradition. It's about a 40 minute round trip. My nephew, who is 5, was so excited about this walk. I guess he wasn't allowed to go last year because he was "too little" (or at least that is how he remembers it - it could have been the not so great weather conditions... ). Well, he was big enough this year and had a great time. I love that my nieces and nephews get so excited about the little things like taking an afternoon walk.
My husband and I always decorate for Christmas the week end after Thanksgiving. For years, we tagged a live tree and had my brother deliver it the Sat. after Thanksgiving. I just loved the smell of the live tree in the house. In fact, I even had a live tree before I was married and lived in an apartment. One year, I was out of town the Sat. after Thanksgiving and asked my brother to just "drop off the tree" at my apartment. He and my Dad would cut off the bottom and put it in the tree stand for me. Well, when I returned, there was my tree, all set up and ready to be decorated. The funny part of this story is where I found the piece of trunk that they had chopped off before putting the tree in the stand. It was in the microwave!!! They thought this was hilarious - not just because of where they hid it, but because it took me about a month to notice it was in there (that tells you how much cooking I did!!). Cleaning the sticky sap out of the microwave wasn't so funny, but it did make me laugh (they laughed hysterically when I called to "yell" at them!). My husband and I have an artificial tree and it is just as lovely (...I do miss the smell but not all the needles!). When we hang the ornaments, I'm reminded of a person or an event - it's like hanging little memories! The picture below of the little angel inside the plastic holder is from my childhood. I think there were a couple of these ornaments (with something inside them) and I remember them hanging on our family tree each year. I love seeing it hang on my tree today as a reminder of those special Christmas times when I was very young.
Now all we need is some SNOW and it will really feel like the holiday season has begun! I'm sure I'll be posting some wintery fun photos when winter finally decides to stick around!
...my niece was holding a white card so I could learn how to make a fake polaroid!
I'd seen this on a website and wanted to try it out... I think it looks pretty neat!
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