Wait. Prodigal suggests he was acting inappropriately while he was away... I pretty sure that was not the case, because A) he was at an engineer conference and B) because he is awesome. The point is he is home and I am clearly tired.
I know I have mentioned it before, but single mothers have my sincere respect. Good grief. I am not cut out for any of that business. But none of that matters now because he is, at this very moment, snoring next to me and I couldn't be happier.
I should be sleeping, but knowing that I am not the only responsible adult in the house has me very energized. Also, I have developed a unwise habit while he was away of watching 80s and 90s movies late at night to match my moods. You know, "When Harry Met Sally" for a laugh. "Step Mom" for a good cry and "You've Got Mail" for a "This is Us" emotional palate cleanser.
Wait... Don't tell Mr Awesome, I was supposed to wait and watch "This is Us" with him. Oops.
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I was just looking at my calendar (Paper calendar if you are wondering. I am not a digital calendar person. I'm barely a calendar person) and was gearing up for the weekend plans when I discovered next week is Thanksgiving.
Were you guys aware of this? That is just crazy. Did we skip some days in November or is it a leap year or something? I mean I haven't even had a pumpkin spice anything yet. Wait... the leap year thing makes no sense. Did I mention I was tired?
So now I am frantically trying to plan out the season. I want to plan it so hopefully it won't feel like an out of control roller coaster. I don't want to wake up New Years Day and wonder what happened to my favorite time of year.
So first.... I'm looking at Pinterest recipes. We are having a crock pot thanksgiving this year due to my parents move and home renovations and lack of working oven. It should be fun and I do love a good theme. Let me know if you have any good thanksgiving themed recipes. Personally, I'm pretty excited to try cooking this turkey breast in the crock pot. I may never go back.
http://www.recipetineats.com/juicy-slow-cooker-turkey-breast/
As soon as Thanksgiving is over the real Christmas season begins. I need a plan to do all the things I want with my family and none of the things I don't want. The Lazy Genius (my spirit animal) is doing a series on surviving the Holidays and it is....well... genius. She suggests identifying the 3 musts of the season and scheduling them first to make sure they don't get lost in the shuffle.
http://www.thelazygeniuscollective.com/lazy/holidaygameplan
So I'm making that list now.
What are your musts?
Here are a few of mine....
Friday Night Movie Night.... Give me all the Christmas Movies from White Christmas to Christmas Vacation. "You serious, Clark?".... Yes. Yes I am.
Snowden Progressive Dinner.... Our old neighborhood has a progressive style dinner every December and it is my most favorite event of the year. I plan all Christmas activities around this one night. We moved away from this awesome little midtown street 6 years ago and somehow we get invited back to the dinner every year. Probably because they know we would show up whether we got an invitation or not.
Starry Nights.... This is a family favorite. The kids love to wear their pjs while we ride through Shelby Farms "ooo-ing" and "ahh-ing" at the lights. A must for sure.
Advent and Jesse Tree.... We are not good at family devotions, but we some how rally for advent each year. I love the focus. I love my wooden pallet Jesse Tree that Steve made and I love the ornaments that I quickly drew on plain watercolor paper. Most of all, I love seeing the entire story of God's plan laid out in such a beautifully visual way.
These are my top Christmas activity picks. So many other things come to mind, but these definitely have to happen for my holiday season to feel complete.
Dear Reader, (singular) what's on your must list?
