the most wonderful (and often stressful) time of the year!

hope you all had a good thanksgiving. ours was wonderful, but also....very "real life" if i'm being totally honest. as i scrolled through my instagram feed and saw picture after picture of families with young kids smiling happily at the camera in perfectly coordinating outfits, i started to wonder who these people are. holidays with my little family look nothing like that, and this year was no exception. i can hardly get my kids to wear clothes, period, and some one is always crying about something ;) those parents are my heroes if their pictures are actually telling the full story, which i assume they aren't. 

anyway, we started the day with one of my favorite traditions, watching the macy's thanksgiving day parade. i had hoped this would be the year that azalea would really enjoy it, but...not so much. she was not into it at all, so we turned it off after about 40 minutes. maybe some day! our first of two dinners was at my aunt & uncle's house with my cousins, my uncle's parents, and my grandma's husband. we had turkey and tons of sides and pie. i should have paced myself since it was not our only meal of the day, but i just couldn't! dinner #1 was during the kids' afternoon nap time, but they held up pretty well. although ashford cried through most of the meal and refused to eat more than two bites, so that was fun :) 



on a funny note, we had a wild turkey come walking through their yard. i guess he figured he was safe because we had already eaten. ;) 


 we left there after a couple hours, so the kids could get a little nap in before round two. 

we ended up having to wake them up after an hour and a half and they were not happy. huge meltdowns from both of them while we attempted to get them dressed to go to dinner #2. we headed to thatcher's parents' house to spend the evening with his sister, our brother-in-law and nephew. i happily gobbled down more turkey, sides, and pie. we never cook turkey dinner, so it's super exciting to me when thanksgiving comes around. azalea spent the entire dinner upstairs having a fit because she didn't want to sit in the chair grandma set up for her at the table. my child is so easy going ;) we took turns going up to try to calm her down and eventually just let her work through her own emotions. she finally came down when she realized it was time for dessert and she wasn't getting any if she didn't eat her dinner first. ashford was actually a great eater, so that was a relief! 


we got home, put them to bed and thatcher and i followed not long after. whew, holidays are exhausting these days! we are so thankful that we did not have to host on top of all the regular chaos :) 

friday we set out to a tree farm in farmington to cut down our christmas tree. we've gone there for the last few years (with the exception of last year when we went to a tree lot since i was about to pop a baby out). it's the cutest little family-owned place and always really quiet. we just love it! and it could not have been a more breath-taking, picturesque morning walking between the snow-covered trees. 




it was chilly (about 15 degrees) so we found a tree pretty quickly and headed home. azalea thought the process was so fun! so did ashford, even though he didn't really know what was going on. 



this one cracks me up! 


we decorated the tree in the afternoon (with an intermission for nap time). azalea looooved putting the ornaments on and was very upset when we had put them all up and there were none left.



 having my living room all decorated for christmas makes my heart so happy! 


and hanging four(!) stockin on our mantle is an amazing reminder of what a gift my family is. (and a bit surreal!)  


 friday night i gave ashford and azalea new christmas "feet pajamas" (her obsession) and the movie the polar express for us all to watch. azalea was not super into the movie (which is usually the case the first time she watches anything new), but the three of us (ashford was in bed), had a semi-snuggly family night on the couch. a win, if you ask me! 


the rest of the weekend we pretty much relaxed at home. azalea and i went sledding saturday morning and we had thatchers' parents over for dinner sunday night. it was a much-needed break. i'm looking forward to the next few weeks of fun christmas activities and i'm going to try not to stress too much about all the things i "need" to get done. hope you all had a good thanksgiving with your loved ones. 

Comments

Kristin said…
Looks like an awesome weekend! And I'm with you - people must be drugging their kids to get some of these photos I am seeing. :) Excited to see you on Thursday!
No worries Azalea! I still go to my room at grandma's and take a break from all the relatives visiting action. Holidays can be long and its good to have some time by yourself!
~Dawn~ said…
I bribe my kids with chocolate to take good pictures..and their smiles usually look super fake. haha

Looks like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! You should have stopped by the Lares house after picking out your tree in Farmington!! ;)
I'm with Dawn. Bribe, bribe, bribe! Even with all the real lifeness, it seems like you guys had a nice holiday weekend. Your tree looks great and I love all the pictures from the tree farm.
DeNae said…
Your real life thanksgiving is my reality, too. Glad to see I'm not the only one without a 100% Kodak moment holiday.

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