Thanksgiving Weekend

We are on a "rotation schedule" for the holidays, spending every other Thanksgiving and every other Christmas with my in-laws and the other years with my parents and sisters and their families. This year, we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and sisters (minus the one who moved to TN). The day before Thanksgiving is always the food prep day. My sisters and I get together with my mom and distract her and get in the way while she does the majority of the work. :) Actually, she gives us instructions and we really do try to follow them, but she still seems to end up doing the majority of the work! Funny how some things never change. We spend the entire day getting things prepared for the Thanksgiving feast while the kids run wild.

Then, Thanksgiving Day, everybody gets together and the girls get everything cooked and ready while the boys entertain the kids. Every year we complain to my mom that there's no reason to bring out the good china because it just adds more work, and every year we bring out the good china. We did manage to convince her, however, that the kids definitely did NOT need the china.

Jake and Addi later got into the spirit of Thanksgiving by attempting to dress up like Indians and shoot bows and arrows. This was what they came up with...

The day after Thanksgiving in the Herron household is the day that I pull out the Christmas stuff and Jay puts up the Christmas lights on the house. Jake was really excited to be able to help with the lights this year and the boys spent the entire day at it. If you know Jay at all, you know that he is a perfectionist. So, of course, the lights are perfect without one single little light out of place or going in a different direction. If putting up lights was my job, that would be a different story entirely. Addi and I worked on doing the inside decorations. Correction: Addi played with the decorations as I worked on setting them up.

Here she is playing with our homemade nativity set. That was a project I took on a couple of years ago, and my plan was to make several of them to give away as gifts. Yeah...that didn't happen.

Jay and Jake were still working on lights when it was dark outside, so Jake needed his trusty headlamp!

A future perfectionist in the making!

The day after we put up lights and get the Christmas decorations out is tree-putting-up-and-decorating day. And, just like my mom used to do, I always lay out a spread of various snacks on the couch and give the kids directions as they put up the ornaments.

For whatever reason, the kids were convinced that we should be putting a star on top of the tree instead of an angel. Apparently, they have seen it that way more often. I kept telling them, "We do an angel at the top." Of course, they responded with, "But why?" to which I informed them, "Because that is the way I have ALWAYS done it. It was ALWAYS an angel when I was growing up and it will ALWAYS be an angel while you are growing up. So there!"

 



Those beautiful stockings in the background were handmade by my mom and are treasured possessions...in fact, the greatest stockings EVER, if you really want to know. The second one hanging there is the same one that I have had ever since I was little. She just took out the stitching that said, "Kinzi" and changed it to say, "Mom." Unfortunately, she did not pass along her sewing skills to any of her daughters. The stocking in the middle that doesn't match the rest is just one that I picked up and painted "Happy Birthday, Jesus" at the top. I'm sure that my mom would want to make it very clear that that one is NOT her work! The kids will put money in it each night after they eat their rice and beans for dinner.

And, the first night of rice and beans...

And lastly. just because it's funny, another picture of Jake sleeping. Apparently, he is still having a difficult time getting comfortable in his bed at night!