November 2020 || Hello, Holiday Season

 November was all about basketball tournaments... and holiday decorating! We soaked up the very last of the warm nights when we could and then bit by bit --- we dressed our home in its holiday best.

I go OVERBOARD with Christmas decorating, and I'm not even ashamed of it. Yes - it's a lot of work - but it's all worth it for me. If we have to be stuck inside in the cold and in the dark, we might as well fill every single room with as many twinkly lights as possible. When we bought this house four years ago, with so much more space than we had been used to, I set a goal to put a Christmas tree in every room. This past Christmas - I accomplished that goal with the final addition of a little tree to the master bedroom. And with the remodel of our kitchen last year and opening our home up even more by taking down the wall, I had SO much fun decorating a Christmas, too. My favorite corner of our holiday cottage? The little hot cocoa bar above the new kitchen counter.

This might be the last picture I have of her with a binky in her mouth. And funny story about this tree...

We spent a morning putting it up. And then took it down right away, went to Menards and came home with a brand new tree much more to my taste. This tree had been in my family for YEARS -- it was the tree I grew up with, and in its day, I absolutely loved it. It was so real and natural looking but it didn't look right in our new house -- it wasn't quite tall enough -- and I had been jonesing for a flocked, pre-lit tree for a couple of years.

And there she is. She is gorgeous in person, and I couldn't have been happier with it. (Not to mention we didn't pay a dime for her since we had so much rebate money after remodeling our kitchen earlier in the year). ;)

Our old tree went to a good home - a new, young couple just starting out - and I know they will enjoy it and give it love.

Kaitlyn appreciated the Christmas train in the basement even more this year, and many nights were spent downstairs by the fireplace.

We also purchased the Little People Nativity set for Kaitlyn so that she could truly start learning the reason for the season. She loved playing with the baby Jesus and the animals.

Waking up to the first snowfall...

More holiday spirit to come!

More from Halloween 2020

Halloween was so fun this (last) year. It's amazing how much my opinion changes on this "holiday" when I have little kids to celebrate with. And our little honeybee absolutely soaked up this special weekend to the fullest. She played the part of the cute little bee buzzing through the neighborhood on trick-or-treat night, and her excitement level every time she saw a lit up jack-o-lantern on a front porch all season long encompassed everything that's great about kids seeing the world - or part of it - for the first time. And my whole thought process around Halloween - young kids or not - is to make a party out of it for the adults, too. A little bit harder to do in 2020 with all things pandemic, but luckily our weather was mild enough -- and Halloween fell on a Saturday -- so our neighborhood was socially-distanced abuzz with adults mingling in the middle of every street - beverages and snacks in hand - tables set up on driveways for candy grabbing - and lots of much-needed reconnecting in the Covid fresh air. ;)

This was the first Halloween that neither of the boys dressed in costume, but they had a great time, too - helping Kaitlyn enjoy the occasion, enjoying treats of their own, and relishing in all the extra social and community time.

We kicked off our Halloween weekend with pumpkin carving on Friday night.

Kaitlyn wasn't all that shy with diving into her pumpkin and though she didn't care at all about the design on the pumpkins -- she did love the way they looked all lit up.

I'll let you guess which pumpkin belongs to which child of mine. ;)

And pictures of trick-or-treat night. Our neighborhood did a FANTASTIC job making sure the celebration was both safe -- and spirit-filled for everyone. I went into the night thinking Kaitlyn would maybe make a few stops at the houses on all sides of us and then call it good... but she stayed out for almost an hour! Those two little legs walked our full neighborhood with confidence and charm, and my favorite part of the night was when she proudly introduced me to everyone we saw in the street: "This is MY mommy!!!" Gosh, I love this girl.