thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite times around here. There's just so much excitement in the air and lots of family time.  Ga Ga and Papa always spend the night before with us and the kids love to help Papa prep the turkey.

It's become a tradition since they were really little!

So proud of their work!

They love watching it in the oven!

Time to eat!  Daddy always does the carving

And they love breaking the wishbone!

We had the nicest afternoon.  Ga Ga and Kerigan worked on changing out their fairy garden to Christmas themed!

Then all of us went to see Coco and we all gave it two thumbs up!

I'm going to go ahead and say this is one of my all time favorite Disney movies.  I probably have a lot, but this one is in the top 3 for sure.

When we got home we had leftover turkey and Craig made us holiday moscow mules!  Yum!

Kerigan's sweet turkey writing she brought from school

And I will save this note from Andrew's teacher forever.  It meant the world to us.  We thought it was such a special thing for her to do and send out over Thanksgiving.

Then we woke up the next morning and Buddy had come!  This is one of their favorite holiday traditions ever.

Their excitement is contagious!

I'm gearing up for a whole season of Elf mischief and messes!  Ha!

We were heading to Craig's parents later that day so Kerigan helped me make cookies to take along!

Next it was time for cousins and our first Christmas celebration with Craig's family!

We always love this weekend every year and our kids can hardly wait to spend so much quality time with their cousins and grandparents.

It's always fun and games at the Huegel's!

This year my sister in law made these saran wrap balls full of little treasures!  She made ones for adults and some for the kids- we all had a blast!

You had to hurry to unwrap it so you could keep the treasures before the next person rolled doubles!

We opened gifts- this girl got Troll jammies to match her baby!  She loved it!

Matching pj's for these cousins!

The next day we headed to celebrate Christmas with Craig's mom's side.  This is Craig's sweet grandma- she has over 20 grandchildren (plus their spouses) and 30+ great grandchildren and she never misses a birthday and sending us $5.   She is AMAZING, I'm telling you.

They have a nice park outside so all the kids can play- luckily it was chilly but no snow yet so the kids could all enjoy the fresh air!

Three Huegel boys

Then we came inside and did more saran wrap balls!  Ha!

She was a fan

That night the girls made a fort in grandma's basement and were so excited to sleep in it!

The next morning we headed back home after snapping a pic with grandma!  We had such a fun weekend with family!

football, friends & fun

We had fun kicking off November with a trip back to see old friends for a birthday party.

Kerigan loved sleeping over at Payton and Piper's house.

Then the next day they had Lily's birthday party.

It was such a cute chef party- they were all bakers!

These three girl have been BFFs since they were 2 years old

Also most of these girls were in Kerigan's preschool class and have grown up together.  I love that Lily still invites Kerigan to her parties and it's like no time has passed between these girls.

And I feel the same way about my mama friends (Angie and Amanda's daughters are some of the girls pictured above).  I connected with these mamas and they have become my people.

When we got back home, my little chef wanted to help me do some fall baking in her chef hat!

This guy needed a new sleeping bag- and it came in the same day as the new book he had been wanting.  So he camped out on his floor and looked so cozy!

He's been so into a couple series of books this year and I thank his 5th grade teacher!  You know it's a good book when he's reading while sitting at the computer!  Ha!

One Friday I came in early to have lunch with my girl- I love these days so much!

Then I helped with recess duty on this cold day- Brrrrrr!

Mornings off are just my favorite because I often get to spend them with my kids! This morning was a first grade field trip to see Junie B. Jones.  I loved every minute of listening to my girl giggle beside me.

She just loves reading and has especially enjoyed these American Girl books that go with her Wellie Wishers.

Daddy's football team was in the state championship again this year so we had a little road trip to watch them play!

Andrew was so excited to have his cousins join us for the game and dinner afterwards!

These guys make watching the game so much more fun!  Daddy's team lost the game but 2nd place is pretty great, too!

We love days when Ga Ga comes to visit!  Kerigan said her favorite day with Ga Ga was when they gave themselves a pedicure, complete with bath bombs!

Showing Ga Ga her new emoji pj's!  #shesobsessed

Another night my mom said Jim had a surprise and he wanted to meet us for dinner.  So we each drove an hour and met in our old town at our favorite pizza place, Zeno's.  After dinner Jim gave me this beautiful decorative box for my farmhouse table!  The best part is that the wood was from my dad's old barn, and Jim made it himself.  It was a very special gift, connecting 2 very important men in our lives.

Afterwards we went to Dollar Tree just because.  This is what happens when you don't want to be in Dollar Tree but you have to be.  Ha! 

I don't know about anyone else but November just puts me in the mood for Christmas.  It's like the beginning of the whole season for me.  I love getting out all the decorations and the kids can't wait to decorate their tree.

Isn't it so fun finding all the ornaments you remember and love from year to year?  Andrew loves it so much!

I'm thinking soon we're going to need a bigger tree!

I have a kids tree in the basement with all their special decorations- things they make, treasures from vacations we've been on, etc.  Then our tree upstairs is more formal ornaments.

And this was the first year I've had this monster that the pre-lit lights decided to fail on me.  My tree was striped!  Ha!  I was so bummed, but this tree was just perfect in our old house and now I'm thinking I'm going to need to go slightly smaller for next year anyway.

Kerigan was so good with helping me decorate this year!  She loved it and stuck with it for a long time!  I would get up on the ladder and she would hand me the ornaments.  It worked great!   She was so happy to be helping.

Meanwhile... Ha!  Andrew wanted to be in the basement watching TV and Daddy was cramping his style.  I agreed with Daddy and so he wrote me this note.  This kid!

Belle found her favorite spot again!  She gets so bummed when I take the tree down every year!

A little glimpse of my finished work!  Next year when we get our furniture I'm afraid there won't be room for this tree anymore!

I keep this other little tree in the kitchen and hang our Christmas cards that come in the mail.

Our mantle

See how awesome this box is that Jim made me??  I plan to leave it on the table and decorate it for every season.  I'm so in love with it!

My favorite part is sitting down afterwards and enjoying all the twinkle lights while watching Hallmark Christmas movies!  This little furball on my lap just adds to the coziness. #happyplace

My little man loves to stay up late and watch old Christmas movies with me.  Here I introduced him to Christmas Vacation- it's become his favorite I think!

Here we were in the basement looking for the remote under the couch so we could have family movie night!  #oops

Isn't this just the best feeling in the world?

Movie night ended early this time- Ha!

We loved going out to see the movie "Wonder" this season.  What a wonderful movie- Andrew had read the book in school and Kerigan and I had read the kids version.  Such a special story- we all loved it!

And we found Santa!  One morning I took them in their Christmas jammies to a nice department store who lets you take as many pictures as you want and gives you a free picture!  I call that a win-win.

Now, bring on the Christmas season!

#wewontskipthanksgiving  #ipromise