November 29-December 1

Well, here in the US Thanksgiving is on a Thursday… so confusing. Why not a Friday or a Monday? While it is not a government holiday the Friday after IS a holiday for many places. And of course it is BLACK FRIDAY… a huge shopping day when a lot of deals are there for the grabbing. Ken and I did minimal shopping with a quick trip out to our local and honestly not so busy (comparison wise) Target. Yesterday’s post of the lovely Christmas matching dresses (HERE) was one of our finds as was a couple gifts on the kids’ Christmas list that were must have and long requested and on sale!

We did our minimum of basic schooling  before the cousins arrived for a weekend visit. Of course we put the willing and somewhat willing hands to work making more little hats to go on the Christmas tree. Nana sure can motivate!

On Friday

And again on Saturday

Echo snuck her time on the computer playing Minecraft… though I am not sure how far she made it, she did enjoy it!

On Saturday the girls enjoyed a cozy tea party.

Echo dressed up for the part in one of her favourite “blue dress” dresses.

Bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel

The weather held out long enough for the kids to spend some time in the backyard. Coats are now a definite necessity!

We started December with the whole family heading to church. There was no Sunday School as it was Thanksgiving weekend. It was not a full service but we enjoyed it. Sitting in the back with crayons and paper and attempting to be patient is always a bit of a struggle but I think we didn’t do too badly.

They had a fair for Advent the day before and there were special treat bags for the kids left over so they gave them out at the end of the service. We had 5 very excited kids when that happened!

With it being the beginning of Advent we started our calendars counting down. We have THREE! Trinity’s is a Santa face where you fill in the beard with cotton balls.

The girls got their Christmas vibe on with some pretty picture making. I love stickers and buy up the 1.00 books whenever I come across them!

Super fuzzy sorry!

And that was that. We are done with Thanksgiving (resource and book work to follow) and onto Advent and the days to Christmas are ticking by!!! Where has the time and the year gone?????

November 28

HAPPY AMERICAN THANKSGIVING!

I am still getting the hang of having Thanksgiving so late in the year… this Thursday in November is still odd to me! First off, almost the middle of the week (not a Monday or Friday????) and then so much closer to Christmas! YIKES.

We had a full on turkey dinner with the fixings… homemade stuffing, gravy… mashed potatoes…

Smaller of 2 turkeys

Homemade peppermint fudge

As Joe and Faithe alternate their Thanksgiving with each of their families this year was their year with Faithe’s family. So we had our family, Nana and Baba and Aunty Judy with Uncle Jim and two of their kids (Robbie and Jessica). 13 in total made for a nice full table.

Of course there was time to play before and after dinner with pumpkin pie for desert.

Pumpkin pie

A full day ended with full kids. We decided not to go out to any of the Black Friday sales. Instead Ken and I planned on making a run out to Target the next day. I have a specific over 6 month long request from Miss  Trinity and can not risk missing the potential sale OR them selling out of those items. Well, and one on one time in a rather low key store (our area seems to not have a massive Target Black Friday rush as compared to Walmart or Kohl’s) with Ken is always a bonus.

Wore Jessica out!

It was definitely a day to be thankful!\

November 23-24

I don’t normally allow a true four day weekend but with this being the first weekend with Nana and Baba back from Tulum it seemed like the best thing to do. Of course that does not mean we DID much. In fact, Friday was definitely a sit about and relax kind of day. It was at MIDNIGHT Thursday that Ken and I did one more rather “American” thing. We went out for my very first Black Friday.

Apparently it is not the same as it used to be as some stores opened as early as 8 pm on Thanksgiving day, but we decided to wait til midnight with the hopes that the lines would be shorter as well! We only went to two stores – Walmart (crazy lines!!! Lost a mitten… so sad as it is one of my Canadian ones from the Bay from last year, but we will be going back to Walmart to check the lost and found) and Target (the exact opposite, quiet and no lines, and I bought a pair of stretchy gloves for 3.00 to replace the mitten at least temporarily). OH and Starbucks IN Target… I got a Christmas themed coffee for the fun of it, total yum and NOT cheap!

We didn’t buy much but could not resist the pj’s at 4.00 a piece (I really should have bought double sets)… I did finally find out the reason it is called BLACK Friday though… It is because the day after Thanksgiving is seen to be a good shopping day, the day that stores move from being in the red to in the black due to large sales! Interesting but boring reason. So we drove around a bit and saw the crowds and determined that the big thing we needed to get was better purchased ONLINE! BUT now I can say I braved the crowds! And as I promised myself, only bought the things we needed from a select list,  not just sales for sales sake.

It snowed that night!

Anyway, after returning victorious (we also managed to get a copy of Brave for Nana and Baba at the 10.00 sale price) we had some cleaning up to do, and then bedtime. Friday morning we… well we sat around, the kids played computer type stuff and the adults rested. We really did NOT want to go out on Black Friday and face the craziness. Some places had time sensitive sales but really we didn’t NEED anything badly enough to head out. Family together time was a MUCH better choice.

A Short run in the snow since we needed to get boy boots yet

Poor little bruised face

Zander with his reading. They are REALLY improving!

Of course SATURDAY was slightly different. That evening Ken and I went out to Bath and Body works to take advantage of a limited time sale AND the fact that here in the US we can stack coupons. Add to that an American Express gift card I won online and we spent a grand total of 71cents and got almost a hundred dollars worth of items! That included a FREE candle! (I am sure you can imagine how happy the family pyro is with his TWO Christmas scented candles) We had actually planned on going out to get boots for the boys but when we stopped at a gas station to fill up a tire Ken ended up accidentally deflating it and slowed us down to the point where it was just best to head home and plan for another day.

I saved 53 dollars PLUS I had a gift card I won so I only spent 71 cents :)

Instead the boys played Minecraft and they all played games. That freed me up to sew to my heart’s content (though did mean we did not make it to get the yarn I am missing for some Christmas presents). I am done all the hats for all of the kids, and now am moving onto the other people in our life… lots of light bulbs and various ideas are coming to mind so hopefully I can manage to continue at a fair pace without wearing out my hands.

Minecraft AND puzzles

It is definitely winter here, though nowhere near as nasty as we are used to for November. The snow is sticking and the weather more overcast BUT it is still lovely! No -30 Celsius yet!

Poor Echo, her face looks worse before it looks better!