So Halloween is over...now time to move onto thinking about Thanksgiving, right? Or maybe it's just me that is already craving certain thanksgiving foods and can hardly wait to cook them. Who knows. But I am already planning out the menu, mainly filled with food I want to have. Luckily, Thanksgiving is more labor intensive in our family than Christmas, since my mom has become convinced that the baby is literally going to be born on Christmas Day.
That would be inconvenient. I'd like to officially request that the baby be born either before Christmas or after, and not on Christmas Eve, Day, or New Years Eve. Thanks.
On Thanksgiving, we mainly sit around and cook a lot of food and watch the Macy's Day Parade. The staples for us are turkey (of course), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, candied yams, and homemade pumpkin pie. As long as I have those things, I can pretty much get by. I'm looking forward to the kids actually eating this year. Let's keep our fingers crossed! I'm usually really stressed on Thanksgiving, which is lots of fun.
Christmas is more low key for us...we decorate the tree ahead of time, but no presents go underneath until after the kids are in bed on Christmas Eve. We go to Christmas Eve service, and then the kids put reindeer food outside for the reindeer, and cookies and milk inside for Santa, then get put to bed no matter what time it is. Then we have a glass of champagne while wrapping presents and putting them under the tree (so, maybe a plus if the baby is already here!). The next morning, we usually get up insanely early, make cinnamon rolls and open presents, then take a nap. Then we go to the movies later in the day. Christmas Day is usually super relaxing and fun for us.
Of course, who knows what those days are going to look like this year. I'm hoping we'll be able to do some part of the celebrations together, rather than making the kids split time between us, as that would be really upsetting to all of us, I think. I just can't stand the idea of spending time away from my kids on Thanksgiving and Christmas, especially since I will either have a brand new baby or be hugely pregnant and emotional. It just makes me so sad to think about having to be away from them.
Luckily we've still got a few weeks until Thanksgiving so that I can locate our Christmas tree and ornaments. For some reason, no matter how much I remind myself, I completely forget where everything is from one year to the next, and we end up buying all new stuff, and then, of course, finding the old stuff immediately afterwards. It's annoying.
What are your holiday traditions? Is there anything you just have to do or it doesn't feel like a holiday?
Park City Utah
2 years ago
