Happy Thanksgiving Back.

We're coming off our 4.5 day weekend, and it's been so great. But I was determined to hit tomorrow hard and with no glitches in the morning routine, so we have spent the past little bit packing lunches, setting out outfits, packing up backpacks and my gym bag, etc. 

And then we got the call that school is canceled tomorrow due to bad weather.

I can't say that I mind too much. We've done a lot of stuff the past four days but despite the productivity, there was a chill vibe throughout that was so relaxing.

Chill vibe? I don't feel like that's a natural phrase to come out of my mouth. Am I trying to get in with the cool kids here or what?

I picked up the girls from their half day Wednesday, and Gwen was donning yet another holiday-themed hat.

A turkey wearing a turkey.

I don't have any pictures from our two feasts. Because I'm so chill vibey now. (Did I use that phrase correctly?)

But I can tell you that we ordered the Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving pack because Dan LOVED it last year. We ate that Wednesday night. And Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. We ate shrimp today because even Dan, the Cracker Barrel lover, could not stand to eat that meal one more day. But there's still some in the fridge, taunting us every time we open the door. 

We were also invited to eat at a friend's house Thursday, and we did so. And it kinda ruined the Cracker Barrel experience for Dan. Last year, I was pregnant and sick and couldn't cook and also couldn't handle anyone else cooking, so we ordered Cracker Barrel and Dan was pleasantly surprised with how good it was. Hence why we ordered it again this year. But compared to the all homemade-from-scratch meal we had Thursday night, it just didn't measure up. Probably our last Cracker Barrel year.

And Friday, we started setting up for Christmas.

We also let the kids set up a smaller tree in their room, and here is that beauty in all of its kid-designed glory.

Kinda makes Charlie Brown's tree look good.

The nighttime look:

I also completed all of our Christmas shopping Friday. This is how I roll-I make the list late in October, add and delete as needed through November, wake up early Black Friday, make my purchases online and have it all shipped to my house. And then don't think about it again until it's the night before and I realize I have not wrapped anything. Which I'm not going to do this year! But getting it all done in one sitting is the way to go.

We're not really puzzlers, but after the kids enjoyed an old dinosaur puzzle we forgot we owned until recently, we decided to order one for us to all to do together over the holidays.

Dan has put every single one of those pieces together. The rest of us took one look and remembered we aren't puzzlers. But he persevered and loved/hated it. He couldn't leave it alone until it was done. It's done now except one piece we can't find anywhere. Will Dan ever sleep again? No one knows.

Don't kill my chill vibe, Dan.

On Saturday morning, we headed up to the church to help with set-up for the big nativity display our church hosts. Dan did set-up in the gym, and I was in the nursery taking care of kiddos so that other parents could work. And by "taking care of kiddos", I mean "put on a movie".

I kid, I kid. I mean, there was definitely a movie playing, but we all had fun outside of the movie too. And Beck kept planking while we were there. Babies imitate what they see, and I am the person he sees most often, so it just makes sense.

We took our Sunday photo in front of the tree this morning:

And after church, the girls wrote their letters to Santa.

And our Come Follow Me lesson today, taught by Dan, while I drew flower after flower on a notepad to entertain Harris.

Then Gwen asked to teach a lesson. And it made me really grateful for her awesome primary teacher. We are really trying to adopt the home-centered, Church-supported Gospel teaching lifestyle, but there is no denying that Gwen has the best primary teacher in the whole world, and she learns a ton every single Sunday at church.

And then it sleeted outside and Dan shoveled our walk. Harris misinterpreted Dan's going outside as Dan going on some sort of outing, and Harris screamed and cried until I got him all dressed up and let him go on said "outing" as well. So he sat in the van with the door open as Dan shoveled.

Looks like an awesome outing, Harris.

The End.