Thanksgiving always tops my list of favorite holidays. While enjoying a “fancy” meal with family is definitely one of the reasons to enjoy it (one that tastes better when not made by me); I love having a simplistic day, just hanging out with loved ones and avoiding the normally busy activities of everyday life. This feeling has only expanded as my family has grown, both from my own offspring and my in-laws.

Thanksgiving weekend means putting up the Christmas decorations on the main floor of the house (AFTER Thanksgiving mind you), something to look forward to during the darkest month of winter. This year the girls will better enjoy the lights and decor…as long as they can’t reach it (haha).

This holiday remained relatively quiet for us- partially because the girls all have head colds with terrible coughs and runny noses and partially because it was nice to take a day off from being out and about. Grandma Sue and Papa Lon came over, played with the girls and cooked us a great dinner, and Uncle Will and Cousin Tyler visited as well. Dinner consisted of prime rib and a swan, green bean casserole, homemade spinach dip, a rosemary vegetable medley, traditional sweet potatoes, and of course pie! The girls can’t confirm how tasty dinner was because they ate nearly nothing, but I can tell you it was delicious. We sat down to eat shortly after waking everyone up from an extremely long nap (2 plus hours!), which showed that everyone felt under the weather from their colds. This went about as well as trying to get a couple nice photos for this year’s Christmas card…

At the dinner table Emerie was quite entertained by the black olive on her thumb and eventually ate it, while Harper didn’t care that much either way and Reagan would NOT let us put that food on her hand. Of the three, only Emerie enjoyed some of the prime rib while Harper didn’t want any meat, but entertained a few bites here and there of other things. Reagan hung out at the table and threw all food on the floor. Later that night they all ate a little pumpkin pie and some vegetable pouches. We are hoping these colds end here soon so everyone will get their appetites back!

So after all of that- what am I thankful for most this year? There are so many things, but a few that top my list are:

• Enjoying a nice holiday with family
• Healthy (minus the cold), happy toddlers that learn and grow each day and spending the weekend with them (even when sick…which isn’t super fun, but still I’m trying to enjoy it…)
• A rock star husband who is always taking care of his family
• A flexible and supportive job
• A nanny who adores our babies and that comes to us…meaning we can sneak out to work each morning while everyone else is asleep (so thankful to you Miss Chris!)
• Great friends who stuck with us through this big life change and supported us along the way
• For everyone who prays for our family and checks in to see how we are doing. It’s much appreciated!
• And of course…Black Friday shopping online! This is the first year in a long time I didn’t go out and catch some deals in person. The dreaded flu that is taking over the city has me a little more hesitant than usual to go out and about, especially with the girls.

One other thing I’m thankful for…not having puking babies very often. We aren’t used to it! I think Craig and I have been thrown up on more in the past week than the entire last 20 months with the girls. Yesterday it was Reagan coughing and spewing all over the dog bed at 1 AM; the prior day it was Harper all over her crib during the night and the night before that it was Emerie unloading in our bed. It’s very interesting to see how evenly they are spreading out their holiday spirit to us haha.

No, it’s not the flu (thank God); it’s simply bad coughing fits causing it. And again last night, in normal form, Reagan threw up her entire dinner and 8 ounces of milk on who? I’ll give you one guess…and it wasn’t her dad. She took that mess far better than I did…or the couch…or the carpet. Her sisters didn’t seem to mind either and tried to go touch it. Such fun over here. Luckily afterwards she was back to her happy self, and we put them to bed without any issues.

I hope everyone else had a great day and enjoys the long weekend. Fingers crossed some snow is headed this way that we can enjoy…the windstorm could at least bring us that…for now, we’ll be over here wiping up snotty noses and Tylenol dosing for double ear infections… ❤