Hmm let’s see… November… AMERICAN Thanksgiving, a visit from Nana and Baba, full on fall weather, school, the beginning of the Christmas countdown. Because Nana and Baba were there in the right time frame we also saw Santa which you can read about in a previous post.

Beach towels from their travels

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Not only did Nana and Baba take over the cooking and make a full on turkey dinner BUT the Novaks also joined us! The kids were beyond excited to have the 4 boys over and we adults had a great visit.

Echo chose our seasonally coloured cake. I baked it.

And the twins decorated it.

Ken and I snuck off after Thanksgiving for basically a second honeymoon. For the first time in over 12 years we went out overnight WITHOUT kids. We went to a B and B that Karyn and I had visited previously in Wisconsin (different room). We hung out in our awesome room.

Went out for a delicious dinner at an old mill.

Dressed up for a dinner out.

Shopped at an amazing yarn place.

AND drove out of our way to an even more amazing wool place.

Oh yah I spent a little

We even stopped in at a brewery for a tasting for Ken.

And visited the capital building.

It was AMAZING.

ALMOST like back home.

It really was as good as people say!

Breakfast

Wisconsin = cheese of course

NAP

The weather went from sundresses and sunshine to snow and snowboots.

We spent plenty of quality time at the YMCA.

And Ken and I went to an open house at Shandai and Ravyn’s new digs.

We found time for Home Depot.

Crocheted in spare moments.

Cat butt coasters!

Fingerless dragonscale gloves.

Hats for cats!

The girls had their nails done by Nana.

And the twins pitched in with some baking.

We decorated our tree. 

And watched our local black squirrel run our yard like a boss.

Can you believe we even found time for schooling. 

Prepping the Christmas countdown paper chain.

And a visit with the Schwartz family!

A trip to IKEA had us well lit and the girls in new beds. 

November went by in a blink of an eye. But it was a fun blink!

Christmas decorations at the YMCA

Well, I have just enough time after Christmas Day to pop up a few pictures and wish everyone a happy 25th. We celebrated at home just the 7 of us. It was lovely. We skyped some people, played with new toys and ate tons of not so healthy foods. Hopefully I can share more later, but for now – I hope that whatever you celebrate this month was amazing! 

New Pj’s with cookies for Santa

They may not be hung by the chimney with care, but they were filled with love.

Happy kids

Yup… that is a poop emoji on the far right…

Skyping with family

Merry Christmas

Zander and his latch hook kit.

Colouring Echo’s new dollhouse for her 18 inch dolls.

My Christmas exchange mailing… straight from Australia!!!

Scalloped potatoes and ham!

Well it is that time again – our traditional visit with Macy’s Santa with Nana and Baba. We actually went early this year what with Nana and Baba’s visit being over Thanksgiving. (Zander is in blue stripes)

I cheated and ordered our two new dresses off Amazon, and at the last minute! They got in the morning of our trip to the cities. 

The boys lucked out with a combination of new Walmart sale find shirts and an old favourite for the boy who misplaced his new shirt. 

Some photos, Dad and Baba done their work and off we went.

The display at Macy’s is basically the same thing every year with small additions. We figure this year there are a few new animals out. 

We took quite a few photos. Though every year we find it takes less and less time to go through the display. 

The real draw is SANTA, of course. 

Official Santa pic.

After Santa was letters and snacks and more photos. 

We have one final tradition – after all the seasonal fun it is off to Culver’s for dinner. 

We were so glad Nana and Baba could be here for something that this year marked the beginning of our Christmas season.