Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest weeks of the year in my house. Not only are we preparing a big feast, but Christmas decorating begins immediately after. This year was slightly different than most, and I'm sure the year 2020 will go down in history as the year when nothing was as it should be.
Ever since my kids were little, I decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. To even insinuate that we could start decorating earlier was received with all manner of disapproval. Thanksgiving deserves our respect! Besides, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house, which meant putting out additional tables and chairs for the larger than usual group. Typically there were 25 of us, sometimes more. To put out Christmas decorations in addition to everything else would create a cramped and uninviting space, which no hostess ever wants.
Fast forward to 2011. J and I had separated, and for the first time Thanksgiving was just the four of us: myself and my three kids. And it was so special. We ate, we played games, we watched movies. We told stories and laughed and had the best time, and we promised to keep Thanksgiving simple from then on.
That's how we've done it since. In 2017 my (then) daughter's boyfriend C joined us. And this year we have the privilege of adding my new daughter-in-law AB to the family and to the Thanksgiving celebration. Yet even adding two new members to our family has kept our Thanksgiving small and intimate. This year is no exception - as a matter of fact, just about everyone kept Thanksgiving down to 10 people or less per CDC guidelines. I'm not upset about it either. For the first time in decades many families focused on thankfulness instead of shopping or football.
There was one change to our yearly tradition, one that I felt was unavoidable. I put up the Christmas tree the Monday before Thanksgiving. The reason for this is simple: my daughter and son-in-law planned a trip to Georgia for the Thanksgiving weekend, and she asked me to sit my grand-dog Kuzco. He's an absolute cutie, and a good, quiet dog, so I said yes. The only problem is, he follows me around everywhere. I knew putting up the tree while he was underfoot would be next to impossible, and I didn't want to wait till they got back to do it. So instead, I broke with tradition and put it up early.
Step one was to move one of the bookcases over to a different wall so the tree could go in front of the sliding glass doors in the living room.
Right between the kitchen and master bedroom entryway is the perfect spot.
Step two, put the tree together. We have an artificial tree thanks to our allergies.
I've had this tree since 2004; it originally was pre-lit but the lights went out years ago. I was going to replace the tree several years ago but oh my word, trees are expensive!! I got this tree on a Black Friday sale for just $114. It's a 7.5 foot tree, very full and beautiful. My daughter and youngest son did me the enormous favor of removing the old lights so I could keep the tree, and here it is 16 years later.
It was my intention to take pictures as I decorated the tree, but I ran into a slight snag. I would buy the regular clear lights every year from Walmart or Target, and every year I had to replace a few strands because the lights would go out. The box of lights is only about $3 but if you have to replace some of them every year they really aren't such a good deal. I bought the Costco LED lights this year because they have a 5 year warranty. I got four boxes, figuring I'd add these to my existing lights and replace as those went out. I started with the LED lights to see how they look, and oh my! This picture doesn't do them justice. They are pure white, the brightest lights I've ever had on a Christmas tree. They're gorgeous! I put up all the LED lights but as this is a 7.5 foot tree and I had only 400 lights it wasn't enough. So I got the clear lights from my stash. There were four strands, one of which only half the lights worked. I grabbed one of the strands and started putting it on the tree. To my horror, I realized these older clear lights looked yellow next to the pure white LED lights. It was absolutely awful! I had to drop everything and run to Costco where thankfully they still had boxes of lights and I picked up a couple more. It was worth it, though. My candy cane tree makes me smile all day long.
The next few days were Thanksgiving focused. I brined and roasted the turkey, made the dressing the night before, got up early Thursday morning to make the chocolate pudding pie and put the turkey in the oven, then made mashed potatoes and crescent rolls. My daughter made sweet potato casserole and a pumpkin pecan bread, and my oldest son and daughter-in-law brought cornbread and cookies. There was lots of food (and leftovers!). We had a great time together visiting.
While they were all here, my oldest son gave me my birthday gift. My birthday isn't till next month, but since he won't be here he decided to give it to me early. Not to be undone by their older sibling, my other kids also gave me their presents.
My youngest son E gave me a gift off of my Amazon wishlist:
I saw one of my favorite YouTubers, Mandy in the Making, using one of these rotating graters. I immediately added it to my wishlist! I'm not the biggest fan of pre-shredded cheese, but shredding by hand is no fun either. This takes the hard work out of shredding cheeses and vegetables. I'm so excited to use it!
My daughter knows my love of Disney so she indulged me with this:
Isn't it sweet?! I'll show off better when I post my Christmas home decor tour.
My oldest son surprised me with something I've wanted for awhile.
I was floored! My doorbell stopped working for I don't know what reason, and I wanted to get one of these video doorbells so I don't have to run downstairs whenever someone is at the door to see who it is. I haven't set it up yet because I have a four-legged shadow that goes nuts the minute I go near the front door, but I'm super excited to have this up and running!
The rest of the week was spent in decorating for Christmas and a small grocery shopping trip on Friday after my son R and his wife left for Central Florida where they live. I'll do a separate post on all the Christmas decorating because, as per usual, it's a lot! Have a blessed week y'all.
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