I love, love, love Thanksgiving. The food, the family, the start to the Christmas season, everything. Sometime in mid to late September I lost my mind and decided that Todd and I would host Thanksgiving at our house for our families. We usually go to my aunt's house in Kernersville for Turkey day but this means we don't see Todd's family. Last year we went to Raleigh for Thanksgiving since I couldn't travel at Christmas so we didn't get to see my family. I decided that hosting it at our house could combine both families and mean no traveling for us. In my head, it sounded like a great plan, but after the invites were sent I started wondering how crazy I was to have so many people in my house. We originally invited around 22-ish people and ended up with about half saying they would make it. So that meant around 12 other people were expecting a good meal so in typical fashion I started getting nervous around the early part of the month. Luckily, Todd and I hosted our community group Thanksgiving a few weeks prior to the big day so we had a chance to work out the kinks in our recipes. Neither Todd or I have ever cooked a complete turkey so we were amazed that we got that right on the first try. A few other recipes and logistics were learned that night so I felt better about getting everything right when the time came.
We started prepping on Wednesday night and got up at 6:00 AM on Thursday to get the bird in the oven. While the food cooked we watched the parade and did the last minute scrambling before everyone arrived. Luckily, our meal was mostly potluck because we were cooking down to the last minute before lunch and couldn't have done much more than we did. My poor little kitchen was filled to the brim with food but everything turned out to be amazing. It worked out really well with the kids naps to be at home and to be able to sprawl on my own couch in a food coma after everyone left. It also meant we had a lot of yummy leftovers to chow down on so I didn't have to cook again for a few days!
Yes, you must watch the Macy's parade while wearing princess costume. Jeez..
Enjoying his first round of turkey.
Friday morning we decided to take Aubrey to urgent care as she had been complaining for a few days her ear was hurting. She had also had a nasty cough on and off for days and we were worried it wasn't getting better. Urgent care must be the happening place to be on the day after Thanksgiving because it was sooo crowded. Luckily, the wait wasn't too long because keeping Aubrey and me entertained with one iPhone got old really fast. The doctor looked at her ears and said they both looked fine, but the cough was a little concerning to him. He wrote her a prescription for an antibiotic and sent us on our way. I then had another lapse in judgement and decided to battle the crowds at Kohls to find Aubrey some new shoes for pictures on Saturday. Who goes shopping on Black Friday to look for shoes with their 3-year old in tow? Yeah, this crazy lady. Kohls was pretty crowded but luckily they seemed be moving people through the lines quickly so I am glad I didn't chicken out when I saw the super crowded parking lot. I even considered battling Target after Kohls but then decided food won over shopping and I didn't want to push my luck with Aubrey's good behavior.
Friday afternoon we cleaned up the playroom to get ready for our Christmas tree. I just redid the playroom a few weeks ago with new toy bins and furniture arrangement so I was anxious to see how a tree would fit in the new arrangement. We went back to our new favorite Christmas tree location, picked out our favorite tree, and planned to decorate right after Mason went to bed. All was going as planned until I sat down to test the lights and realized we were down a strand of lights this year. Our tree usually takes every single light we can stretch out on it, so being down a strand necessitated an 8:00 pm run to Target. We finally started decorating the tree sometime after 9:00 and it seemed to take forever with Aubrey under our feet assisting. She had such a great time putting her ornaments on the tree so I can't complain too much that it took her so long to do it.
Posing with this year's tree
We finished up the long weekend by helping Todd's parents decorate their house. Aubrey has a tree at their house just for her so she do whatever she likes to it while we decorate our college tree. I've considered getting one for our house but who knows where the ornaments would end up with all of her hiding spots so I decided the fun could just stay at Gma and Grandpa's.
I would say this was one of my most favorite Thanksgiving weekends ever and I am so excited to see what the holiday season brings.
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