Thanksgiving Break

We have had an exciting Thanksgiving break so far.

Saturday we had errands that needed to be taken care of and then had friends over that evening for dinner.

Sunday was a rainy day so after church we took it easy at home. The kids had been begging to get Christmas decorations out after our friends on Saturday night told them they had already decorated. So Lance caved and said we would get the tree put together.  Well, unfortunately, when we started putting it together we realized the lights were not all working. Last year when we put it out there was a strand of lights that would occasionally blink so we wrapped an extra set of lights around the tree and took care of that problem. We talked about buying a new, bigger tree for the family room but wanted to wait a year or two so we stuck it out with the one we had. Before we went to all the work of fluffing the tree we put it all together to see what lights were and were not working. It turned out we had a “zebra tree” as the kids called it.

We decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and buy a new one. We knew mostly what we wanted because we did a lot of research on them last year. So that night we placed our order. Since the kids were disappointed with our zebra tree we decided to let them go ahead and get their trees put up in their rooms.

Sam and Hayes both have a 4’ green tree. The one in Hayes’ room is the one that Lance and I bought for our apartment when we were first married. It has been in Reese’s room for the last several years. It is on its last leg so we will probably have to get him a new one next year. We decided not to put any ornaments on his this year because they will just end up all over the floor or broken.

Sam’s has a mish mash of ornaments on it but he loves it so much. I think they each just love the soft glow and twinkle of the lights in their rooms. I need to figure out some kind of tree skirt for their trees.

Reese’s tree is my favorite. Several years ago I saw a white tree with ornaments put on in a rainbow pattern. I showed it to her and she loved it. We never found a white 4’ tree last year so we didn’t get to do it but this year I was randomly at Walmart and they had one (before Halloween) so I grabbed it for her. She was thrilled and we both love how it turned out. This picture doesn’t do it much justice but it is really pretty. Her star is glittery pink and then the ornaments go backwards down the rainbow to red on the bottom.

Meanwhile, the sun started coming out right at dusk and it created the most beautiful light around our house. I couldn’t even get a good enough picture to capture it. It was a beautiful orange glow.

Knowing that the kids didn’t have school the next morning we ran to Target for a few things and then back home for a late bed time.

Monday morning Hayes decided to wake up early so I pulled him in to my bed but he never really went back to sleep. The big kids woke up shortly after that and went downstairs to play. Around 7:15, Hayes and I were still snuggling in my bed so I turned on GMA and figured I would enjoy the slow pace of our morning. Around 7:45ish Reese starts crying and I could tell it was a real cry, not her normal dramatic kind of cry. I ran downstairs to check on her and she was laying on the floor in the foyer. She had been riding our little roller coaster and was not riding it correctly. I asked her if she was ok and she said no. I asked what hurt and she said her chin. Once she stood up and let me see it, I realized our morning was not going to be so lazy anymore. I walked her upstairs, told her not to freak out but that I thought she was going to need stitches. Her chin was not bleeding but it was definitely spilt open. I FaceTimed Leah and had her take a look and she said that we should head to the ER for stitches. We ended up just going to an Urgent Care and left with six stitches in her chin.

She was so brave. She hates getting shots and will scream bloody murder when it is time for them. Getting her stitches there was definitely some crying but it wasn’t the dramatic, over the top response that she has to shots.

The boys were so good too. We were there for about an hour and a half. Sam was really worried about Reese and was closing his ears (afraid she was going to scream) and had tears in his eyes. He kept asking if he could go in the hallway to wait but I wouldn’t let him because it was kind of busy there that morning. Once it was all over, I promised them a trip to Target and a special gift from the dollar spot for being so good. Luckily we were done with all of this before the rest of our plans for the day.

After Target we met my aunt and cousin for lunch. We were supposed to ride horses with them that morning but because of the rain from Sunday we couldn’t do that. I did not get one picture but we had a great visit with them.

While we were at Target one of Sam’s friends asked him to come over for a play date. Sam is super shy about going to other people’s houses alone and this friend has several dogs so I asked if he would want to come to our house instead. He lives in Hallie’s neighborhood so I quickly texted Anna and asked if Hallie could come over too. She was available so I picked them both up after lunch and headed back home. It was a gorgeous day so I put Hayes down for a nap (3.5 hours since he woke up so early) and took the other four outside to play. They all played so well together and I think it kept Reese’s mind off of her chin.

Tuesday we had plans with more friends. We decided to meet at the mountain to go for a walk. It was the perfect fall day and I loved watching the kids run through the woods and walk along the path with leaves crunching under their feet. Even the babies got to run with the big kids for a while. About halfway through we stopped along the path to eat the lunch we packed. We ended up being there for a little over three hours.

When we got home from the mountain I pull up to our garage and our Christmas tree had arrived. I was so surprised because it was less than 48 hours since we had ordered it. I thought for sure it wouldn’t arrive until next week after we had already decorated everything else. So last night we got to work putting it together and getting it all fluffed.

It was a big undertaking because we decided to go with a 9’ tree. Last year when we first started talking about a new tree we said we wanted a 12’…(I’m glad we did not do that).

So we pulled out the tape measure and realized that was ridiculously too big for us. So we measured 10’ and that still felt too big so we decided to stick with 9 feet.

And it is perfect. I love the height of it and the width of it.

This morning when the kids came downstairs they were in awe. They loved it and can’t wait to decorate it. I think we are still going to wait until Friday to do that but I love having the glow of the lights on.

Now today has been a pretty lazy day for the kids. I am slowly getting things done around the house. We are hosting Lance’s family here tomorrow so I need to tidy up a bit and get started on some of the food. Hopefully the rest of our week can be pretty uneventful, peaceful, and full of thanksgiving.