We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and break from school. We missed our extended families and wished that traveling to Nebraska with Tom had been a more realistic option, but the kids and I truly appreciated a relatively quiet week spent at home.
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| Tom and Grandpa Keith |
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| On a Thanksgiving Day hike... |
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| ...that essentially took us into a swamp. Despite our best efforts to stay dry and somewhat clean, this stretch of flooded path did us in and we all ended up soaked up to our ankles. We had a BLAST. |
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| Not too shabby! And we loved eating our Thanksgiving Day feast on Grandma Hallie's china. |
Two
I also had a wonderful birthday, which I celebrated on and off throughout the weekend. (My birthday fell on Thanksgiving, and since I didn't want to take away from the kids' Thanksgiving festivities and all I ever really want for my birthday is for my family to cheerfully put up and decorate the Christmas tree, it made sense for me to pretend my birthday fell on Saturday instead of Thursday.) Highlights include: a surprise breakfast with my friends on Thursday, putting up and decorating the Christmas tree on Saturday evening, the delicious cake Hallie (and sous chef Will) baked for me, a gorgeous necklace from Tom, and painting at Board and Brush with many of my friends.
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| My friends surprised me with a delicious breakfast and mimosas and delightful nutcracker wine glasses on my birthday/Thanksgiving morning. |
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| I consider myself lucky to call these incredible (and artistically talented) women my friends. |
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| Hallie's creation. 😍 |
Three
We finally received the professional photos and video from the dance convention Hallie's company attended a month ago. Tom's working on splicing the three-hour-long video so I can share just our (Rising Star Award winning) dance, but in the meantime, here are a few of my favorite photos.
Four
It feels like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday all blend together now, doesn't it? I joined two friends for their annual Thursday night shopping trip, which happened to be my first-ever true Black Friday experience. It wasn't as frightening as I expected, but I'm told that's because we went to Target instead of some of the crazier stores. On Friday afternoon and after the diehards had gone home to sleep, the kids and I headed to a couple of their favorite stores and found a few deals on stocking stuffers. On Small Business Saturday I stocked up at my favorite local dance shop, and then finally on Cyber Monday I all but finished my shopping on Amazon. It feels great to be (just about) done...now I just have to organize and wrap and ship!
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| Thursday Night/Black Friday shenanigans. |
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| Small Business Saturday fun. |
Five
Happiness Highlights
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| Hallie and her nutcrackers. |
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| My boys at Will's first Aggie game. (They didn't go to THE GAME, but to the game the weekend prior to THE GAME.) |
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| Selling lemonade and chocolate... |
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| ...and serenading the customers with cello music. |
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| Eating actual ice cream from an actual ice cream shop. For multiple reasons this wouldn't - couldn't - have happened just one year ago and I'm so grateful for how far he's come. |
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| New costumes! |
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| Grateful they had each other to climb the tower with - staying on the ground makes me happy. |
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| Gorgeous! |
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| I LOVE my new power washer! (Me, as I unwrap my birthday present: "is it really a power washer?!" Tom: "YES! And you're going to love it - I've been using it for weeks!" 😂) |
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| Some of my birthday present books - I can't wait to break into them! |
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| I found her licking the bowl and icing her foot on the floor of my bedroom...always keeps me guessing, this one. |
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| Talking to her nutcrackers. |
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| Will couldn't find a candle and "doesn't have permission to use matches" (his words), so he put a birthday note instead of a birthday candle in my waffles. |
Happy Friday, Chasing Roots!
Linking up with High Five for Friday here:
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