We had a good Thanksgiving break! It wasn’t perfect, but these things never are, and I am thankful for the rest and time with family that we got. I am also SO thankful that Theo didn’t have to work Thanksgiving Day, especially as we are going into the holiday season where he does have to work the rest of the holidays. I do not take for granted the fact that he got to be there around the dinner table on Thanksgiving!
We started our break before we actually knew we were on Thanksgiving break. We were supposed to have school on Monday and Tuesday, but on Friday morning they ended up cancelling school for the whole week. We were pretty relieved and excited!!!
Saturday morning we kicked off the break by walking with our school float in our town’s parade! We had a HUGE group of people from our school even though it was 20 degrees and windy. The kids were such troopers! This was also Ezra’s birthday, and our giant group offered to sing to him but he was like NOPE. Tera rode in the back of a pickup with her cheer squad, Kiah and I walked, and Ezra rode his strider bike. It was about a mile. The worst part was standing around for an hour waiting for the parade to start. Once we got going, we were warm enough!
Once we thawed out from our parade, we fully crashed into relaxation mode at home. Both Kiah and Ezra seemed to have some kind of respiratory virus that kept them up coughing at night, but were fine during the day. Theo had to work the whole week but had Weds.Thurs.Fri off, so the kids and I mostly just stayed at home and lounged about, did animal chores, baked, worked on puzzles, had some good sibling rivalry (them) and referring (me).
On Sunday we caught the first game of the World Cup and spent the afternoon with my Mom. My Dad has been out of the country traveling, so it was just my Mom, me, and the kids for Sunday dinner.
Monday and Tuesday were just hang at home days. I took the kids to the library one day and I promised them I would play one board game with them each day. There were a lot of kitten snuggles, audiobooks and puzzles for me. It was a COLD week so we didn’t get much outside time.
On Weds, Theo was home from work and it was finally a warm day, so the kids spent a lot of time outside while I tried to get my house set for the business of Thanksgiving. I knew we wouldn’t be home much for the next two days, so I wanted to get ahead on my chores so as not to be overwhelmed later in the week. I decided to just go ahead and decorate for Christmas. This year I haven’t been feeling very holly jolly so I let the kids do 99% of the decorating and I am so happy with how it all turned out.
I also hit 25 weeks pregnant and tried to go off of my anti-nausea meds. It was a disaster so I think it’s safe to say I will be taking them until delivery! 24/25 weeks is always a big milestone, though, as it’s officially the time that the baby is viable for life outside the womb. I know I will most likely still carry until full term, and obviously that is preferred, but it’s a very big deal to me that this baby is a fully developed human who could live outside the womb if need be.
Thursday was when the real fun began! We spent the morning at home watching the parade and cooking some green beans and some sweet potatoes. We then headed over to my parents house to watch the Ghana World Cup game!
We ate Thanksgiving dinner around 2pm and then lounged about for a bit afterwards! Of course, with six kids 8 and under, they weren’t doing much lounging about!
After lunch and cleanup, Evelyn crashed for a nap and Memaw stayed home with her while the rest of us went for a hike. It was a beautiful, warm day and there were lots of other people out for a hike, too! So many people were like “Is this a before turkey or after turkey hike?” and “Burning off all the calories?” Haha.
We got back to my parents house and had some pie and then loaded up our crew to head home. We got home at like 6:30 but it felt like it was at least 8:00! I think the kids ate a bowl of cereal before crashing hard for the night.
Friday was another busy family day, but this time everyone came over to our house! We ate some grilled cheese for lunch and the kids played outside. We had a 2:00 World Cup game that we wanted to watch, but first we hustled out of the house for our first annual Five Below Christmas Exchange Shopping Trip! This was so fun and so easy. First, we all exchanged names. To make it easier, we had the cousins exchange names and the adults exchange names. You had to put the name back if you got yourself or your spouse. We all then loaded up and went to Five Below together to pick out one gift for our person. It was so fun sneaking around the store trying to hide the gift but also trying to help each other when we spotted something we knew a certain person would like. We loaded up and came back home and then immediately exchanged the gifts. It was SO FUN! Very easy, affordable- and the best part was the memories made!
USA World Cup game and puzzles with family.
After the game, we all headed over to my parents house for some of my Mom’s amazing Tigadaga Hoy (West African Peanut Butter Sauce with Rice). I was WIPED by this point and not feeling good at all. We did rally and head out to the see the Xenia Lights Show, thought. It’s a free and really fun lights show set to music. If you are local, I highly recommend it! You can stay in your warm car and watch the hour long show that has some really great songs. We go every year and LOVE it!
Everyone was gone by Saturday morning, and Theo was back to work, so Saturday was a lay low and rest day. I have been hit SO HARD with exhaustion these past few weeks, so I needed a day to do nothing. Too bad my kids didn’t get that memo haha.
Sunday was church and then back to my parents house for lunch and another World Cup game. And Monday was the day before school. I was able to take the kids to the park and feel like I was mostly ready for the week to begin by Monday evening.
And with that, Thanksgiving break was over! The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always WILD and CRAZY. We have just three full weeks of school before Christmas break, and the last week of school is always just parties and Christmassy crafts and activities with very little curriculum. And after Christmas break it will be just about 10 weeks until baby O is here!
I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday if you live where it is celebrated. As always, just remember that the photos are a highlight reel and there are always some hard moments on top of all the fun ones. I am so grateful and thankful for many things, and having a healthy and functional family is at the top of the list for sure.