November

Happy November, yall! Whew. October was a whirlwind of a month here in our neck of the woods, and last week alone was enough to make this mama's head spin. In addition to the girls Halloween dance and our campus Halloween party, we also attended our church family's fall festival/trunk-or-treat, had a pumpkin painting party, and trick-or-treated in Grammy and Da's neighborhood last night. The only things we did not get to do on our "Halloween" list for the month of October was to visit the local fruit farm to pick apples (though we will still make plenty of apple cobblers this coming season!) and carve jack-o-lanterns. I feel quite badly about not making that last item happen. Definitely won't be winning mom of the year anytime soon! Oh, well. Lord willing, there is always next year! Last night I breathed a deep sigh of relief when the girls took off their costumes for the last time and we retired everything to the dress-up clothes bin. Another successful and fun holiday under our belts, and more sweet memories etched on our hearts and minds. So long, Halloween 2010. And welcome November!

Today I was so excited to take down our Halloween decorations and CLEAN! I boxed up the decorations we had out, tossed all of the pumpkins into the garbage can (we were up to 16 pumpkins on our front porch!), cleaned the main level of the house (including purging all of the countertops of papers that had accumulated), and then set out our few meager Thanksgiving decorations. I have long debated over whether I wanted to be one of those people who decorates for Christmas in November, since it is the most magical holiday of the year, but alas, I can't seem to bring myself to do it. I can't eat our turkey dinner, while watching the lights blinking on the tree. It just doesn't feel right, so I compromise by actually decorating for Thanksgiving itself. It makes me feel better. :) We do, however, put our outside lights up in November while the weather is a bit warmer, and we also start watching our collection of Christmas movies. We just can't seem to wait for those. Every November first, out comes the movie Elf so that we can watch it 3,492 times this Christmas season. Just kidding. Sort of.

So that is what we have been up to. Soaking up the last of October, beginning to prepare our minds for Christmas, doing a little schooling here and there, snuggling, teaching Jack Ryan how to crawl. You know. Just living life and thanking God for each day that we have been given together. These really are the good days!