On the weekend before Thanksgiving...

On our way to work Friday morning, I mentioned just HOW BUSY the next 14 days were going to be with celebrating Thanksgiving (3x), hosting my annual Christmas Cookie Exchange, and finishing up prep & celebrating Elyse's 2nd birthday.  Whew.  It's going to be a wild ride, but I'm also so excited to create some wonderful memories with my precious family. 

However, in preparation for the next two weeks, it was nice that on the weekend before Thanksgiving we were able to do whatever we wanted and really didn't have much of any plans. 

Friday night was Hubby's idea and will probably become a new Friday night tradition when we can make it work...Family Fun Night with pizza & a movie. 

Elyse has been OBSESSED with Monsters Inc. so Hubby picked up Monsters University the other night at Walmart.  On our way home from work we picked up a pizza, moved Elyse's little table to the living room, and plopped ourselves down in front of the television with Mike & Sully.  It was a perfect evening and I'm looking forward to lots more pizza & movie nights with my favorite people. 

Saturday morning Hubby & Elyse went on a donut run, while I started prepping the house for Operation Deck the Halls.  I normally have a "No Christmas Décor before Thanksgiving" rule, but with our schedules this year, I just wasn't sure when we were going to get it done otherwise.  So...all the Fall and normal home décor came down, and sparkly trees, happy Santas, and joyful manger scenes were put in their place.  I'll try to take pictures of all the rest of my décor another day, but for now here's a picture of our mantle. 

After most of the inside work was done, I also grabbed my fall burlap wreath and did a quick little transformation...and with a few new flower picks, some new ribbon, and about 15 minutes I had my new front door wreath. 

After working most of the afternoon we voted to have a quick dinner out on Saturday night...but not before we had a quick little tantrum...

Note:  This is what happens when you tell Elyse that we have to pause Monsters University in order to leave the house for dinner.  FULL. ON. MELTDOWN. Including burying her head in a pile of stuffed animals in her room.  Of course I did what any good Mom would do, and I grabbed my camera to document the hilarious occasion. 

Now that I think about it, this was actually the tantrum that was a result of her getting frustrated trying to take her new shoes on and off.....but same song, different verse on Saturday night.  Welcome to the Terrible Twos. 

After dinner on Saturday night, and after our precious angel calmed herself down, we came home and finished watching Monsters University and we finished up the decorating process with unwrapping all the Christmas ornaments.  I failed to snap any pictures of our actual tree because I was trying to hang ornaments and control a certain very curious almost-2 year old while she thought she needed to examine each and every ornament. 

However, I did break out her felt tree and I'm still super proud of myself.  I will probably have to reinforce the 3M poster strips that I used to attach it to the wall, but otherwise I think we have a holiday hit! 

 

 

And so now it's time for a short work week and the official kick-off to the Holiday season.  Experiencing Christmas with Elyse already has my heart just soaring as I think about watching everything through her eyes...I can't hardly wait for it all to begin!