The End of the Fall-idays

2020 is most certainly a challenging year, but we had one of our best Thanksgiving breaks ever! I know it's contradictive, but this is the most relaxed AND productive I have felt in months. We spent 4 great days together as a family, and I'm not even bummed about it coming to an end on Tuesday morning, because we are all so excited to celebrate the Christmas season together!

Despite being an unprecidented year full of things we never expected to face, this year went surprisingly fast. Spring in quarantine quickly turned into a Summer at home, then my kids went back to school, cheerleading/football began, and Fall arrived. The busyness of (somewhat but not really) normal life took over, and before we knew it, Halloween passed and November was here. 

Before moving on to all things Christmas, I wanted to share my last Fall post. I figured it was easiest to lump the rest of the Fall-idays together. Here are the pictures from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, and the quickest Thanksgiving recap ever!

We started to go to the pumpkin patch when Dylan was little, and it quickly became an October family tradition. We did miss a year or two, and our kids were MAD, so we really wanted to go this year. We picked a day - pretty much the ONLY day we could go and cleared our schedule. Then, at the last minute, a mandatory work meeting popped up for Grant.

The kids were upset, so there was only one thing to do...take them to the pumpkin farm alone. We missed Grant, but we were glad that we decided to go. We made it before the rain hit, it was comfortable outside, and it wasn't busy at all, so social distancing wasn't a problem.

Other than Grant not being able to join us, it WAS different this year. There wasn't a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch, or a corn maze. We had to pull the wagon full of kids and pumpkins through the bumpy field, and it was a bit of a walk. We had to wear masks while we paid, and carry hand sanitizer with us, but it was still a fun tradition! (And thanks to the kindness of another mom, I have a picture with my kids, and took a picture for her!)

Moving on to Thanksgiving...

This year, we kept things very low key. We woke up early, and watched the Macy's parade on TV. We did go to my parent's house for dinner, but it was just us. I have a big family, and to be safe, everyone did their own thing. (We have been with my parents during this entire pandemic, so this wasn't any different.) We didn't even go visit Grant's family like we usually do after dinner. 

Instead, we had a nice visit with my parents, ate a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with them, then came home for Family Movie Night. We started with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for Thanksgiving, then moved on to our first family Christmas movie - Home Alone! And once the kids were in bed, I went through the house, packing away Fall/Thanksgiving. Goodbye, Fall-idays!

Here we are, on the last day of November. We spent the past few days together, watching Christmas movies, and decorating our house for Christmas. Every nook and cranny of our home and yard is decorated, and the Christmas spirit is through the roof. We are here for it! We have one more day of break, then Lily will be joining her older siblings for live streaming school at home, while Liam continues to go to school in person. This pandemic just keeps throwing punches, but we are rolling with it, doing our part to stay healthy and protect others, and hoping life can go back to normal soon!