- Gobble gobblE... -

Gobble 'til you wobble!  I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving and all the fall festivities and preppity-prep that comes along with it!  We have some hardcore Thanksgiving week/Day and Black Friday traditions, and repeating/reveling in those each year is just my "piping hot & perfect" cup of tea!  FIRST of all, I swoon over all the adorable holiday artwork that comes home in the kids' school folders...

^^ Scarlett was so supa' proud of her "chicken mask" and wore it all around the house leading up to T-giving 2022.

 

Then!  It didn't stop with "school" artwork... Juliette started with a new babysitter for Mondays at the beginning of November [another much more elaborate post coming about this later, because I have to take a lot of minutes to brag on this ANGEL of a woman loves our lil' girl soooo so well!], and she came home the Monday of Thanksgiving week with this little gem. I literally almost cried. <3

We added Juli's little handprint to the Thanksgiving pumpkin this year [just wasn't quite brave enough to craft with a 2-month old last year, haha!]...

...dressed in our cheetah best to make some foam turkey crafts...

...and went to Grammy and Papa's house on Wednesday afternoon to help her start decorating the Thanksgiving meal table and also finish food prepping!

All.the.sudden it was Thanksgiving morning!  Our tradition of take-out Starbucks coffee shifted to brewing Starbucks coffee and hot chocolates at home...

...and our tradition of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade shifted to Scarlett and Harper recording most of the parade on their new iPads and Juliette not really being interested in the TV program at all...

...but!  Praise be to God, one tradition stood strong, and that was browsing Black Friday ads!  While Juliette took her morning nap, the big kids cut out some items they saw that they wanted to add to their Christmas lists and glued them on a piece of construction paper to show Santa. ;) :)

The rest of Thanksgiving Day was spent in normal fashion: lunch with Brian's family and dinner with my family!  I only have these few pictures from the rest of the day, but it was time well spent with the people we love the most!

 

 

Feeling extra extra grateful this year for health, happiness, and the many, many blessings that surround us each day!!!  The family and friends that we love -- and are loved by, too -- are truly what I'm MOST thankful for!

 

Happy Thanksgiving! :) 

 

 

 

 

- Super J's FIRST T-Day! -

I have had this post full of pics pended now for...drumroll...1.5 years [!!]...and so!  Gonna go ahead and "time hop" the date back to 2021 and try my memory [or, better yet, try to let the photos can tell the story of how we celebrated T-Day 2021!].

On the school front, 8th grade/1st grade buddies made crafts together at school as a Thanksgiving week team project...

 

 ...and Pre-K3 got an assignment of taste testing alllll the Thanksgiving Day foods! *SPOILER ALERT* -- Scarlett only sprang for the carbs and desserts, although she did try a little of everything! I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! ;)

 

Then!  The real T-Day rolled in like a bag of hot cross buns [what?], as Super J woke up at ~5am on Thanksgiving morning to help Mommy do a little pre-Black Friday cyber shopping... 

...before falling back asleep for a 5:30-7am nap and then reawakening to experience our family's Thanksgiving traditions! WHICH ARE: Starbucks coffee...

...browsing/clipping Black Friday ads...

...and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...

...before heading off to lunch with Brian's family...

...and dinner with my family...

...annnnnnd that's a wrap!  Our Thanksgiving Day traditions are so predictable at this point that this post could probably pen itself next year!

 

Happy T-Day, friends!  I am ever so thankful for you!  <3

 

 

- T-giving 2020 -

It's Thanksgiving: COVID-19 STYLE!  Since we weren't going to be able see 3/4 of our Grammys and Papas on Turkey Day 2020, we spent Thanksgiving Eve in the kitchen whipping up some treats...

...and Cricut-ing/coloring some sentiments...

...and hitting the road to drop off all the goodies on everyone's doorsteps! Muffins and drawings were all made with love, and the grandparents were thrilled with their little surprises! #SUCCESS.

Then!  Thanksgiving morning was nothing short of our normal family tradition:  Black Friday ads, Starbucks, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! SIX YEARS IN and still rollin' strong. 

After Brian and I paged through ads, they reached the left end of the island where the kids cut them to shreds to create a custom Christmas wish list!  It came to my attention that Harper wants EVERYTHING Yoda [despite the fact that we've never watched Star Wars...]...who knew?!

 

After lunch and nap time, we dug our turkey roasting pan out of the basement [an unopened wedding gift still adorned with the gift receipt and all! 2020: moving onto bigger and better hosting duties!] and had my parents and Uncle Blake over for Thanksgiving dinner! It was definitely a weird holiday this year in some ways, but so laid back and more intimate in other ways.

 

What a year!  2020 may not have it all together; but together in 2020, we have it all!  We are certainly thankful, grateful, and blessed!

 

 

- Chicken Day 2019 -

And juuuuuust when you think you have me all figured out...

...I swoop right in to throw a dirty wrench in the plan!  Everyone who knows me well knows my T-Day traditions run strong [click link above if you're not brushed up on my predictable preferences]...

But!  Due to having no cable/antenna at the duplex this year, we had to suffer through Thanksgiving morning without tuning into the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

And!  Since we very luckily snagged a newspaper + sales ads on Thanksgiving Eve, Brian didn't want to venture out and make the trek to Starbucks...

OH NOOO, say it ain't so!  

However!  After finding some festive holiday music on Pandora and brewing up some coffee in the pot, we carried on like #nbd and still enjoyed our Thanksgiving morning together to the VERY fullest extent!  Nothing better than uninterrupted quality time with the nuclear fam! ;)

As Brian and I were browsing through the paper, the kids snatched up some toy ads and decided to make a "wish list" for Santa.  Only 70% of Scarlett's circled wishes made it onto the ad [the others somehow scribbled onto the hardwood floor, so thank goodness for lemon essential oil to remove!].  Hopefully Santa can provide; these two have some hefty hopes!

Then, per usual, we bolted off to celebrate the holiday with family!  Harper was so excited to arrive to the parties and wish everyone a "HAPPY CHICKEN DAY!" ...which we corrected to "Happy Turkey Day!"  [The well wishes were also extended to all of her friends at school and all of the shoppers at Schnucks the week prior to Thanksgiving ...#socialbutterfly who is #nothermommasdaughter but #idigress.]

Thanks to Brian's aunt and uncle for hosting lunch and my aunt and uncle for hosting dinner.  We loved spending the day with all of the people we love the most!

^^ My mom started this family tablecloth several years ago [I thought its debut was 2012 or 2013, but I couldn't find our signatures from way back when so clearly my memory is failing me yet again!].  Still, I love looking back at this and finding our names from each year; it's so weird to think we signed "Baby Fleming" and "Baby Fleming #2" and I had no idea at the time I was toting around a little Harper and a little Scarlett! :)

And 16 hours later, thattttttt's a wrap!  Happy Thanksgiving, all!