All tagged Holidays
For Thanksgiving this year, we stayed home and celebrated with my side of the family. Brad was lucky enough to come home from his work trip just for the week of Thanksgiving. His hours were all messed up, but it was really nice having him here to celebrate. Since he was home for only a short period of time, I hosted my family. We had lots of fun, and we enjoyed the time with the family!
Halloween this year was a bit different since Brad was traveling for work and missed it. He did carve pumpkins right before leaving as well as going to the pumpkin patch with us. But this year Melody picked Princess Leia as her costume of choice making it extra hard not having her Star Wars loving daddy there.
Unicorn, our Elf on the Shelf, came back for a second year. She made her appearance on December 1st and went back home to the North Pole on December 24th. This was such a good year as far as Melody’s Christmas spirit. She was so into Christmas in general, and was obsessed with Unicorn even more this year. Check out her shenanigans below!
How has Christmas already happened, and we are now in 2023?!?!? This year really flew by quickly. And I even felt like the Christmas season happened in the blink of an eye. Brad was off work the entire month, but with Melody still in school, the time passed so quickly. We had a lot of fun this holiday season, and thankfully we stayed out of the ER!
Merry Christmas! I thought today would be a perfect day to share Melody’s Santa pictures from this year. She actually had two sets made.
Life is currently so crazy, but I have lots to share over the next few months! First up is Easter. Yes, it is a few weeks late, but such is life right now. We celebrated Easter a few times to make sure we saw as much of our family this year as possible.
I am a little late, but I still wanted to share our Easter baskets from this year.
Valentine’s Day was traditional and simple. We had a festive breakfast, swapped gifts, and made homemade lasagna.
I told myself over the last few years we would never get one of those elves. It was too much work and I was not a fan. But I gave in very last minute this year. Literally I found an elf at Target that was a girl with blue eyes on December 1st. I actually ended up having a lot of fun with our elf. There were a few days she was forgotten by me, but thankfully Brad would remember. She was touched, but we recovered. Check out her shenanigans below.
Christmas is always so much fun. It can be so magical to see it all through Melody’s eyes. Now it can also be super stressful. This year I made sure to finish my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Most was done before November. We also cut back on our traveling this year because we wanted some time at home because Brad’s work travel will pick by up in 2022. But we kept busy, and I decided to just throw all of the fun in one post!
We did the walking nights of Galaxy of Lights back in November. We went on a Sunday, and I actually found it less crowded than last year’s visit. They did change up the trails some this year, but it was still really pretty, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. I didn’t take as many pictures as I have in the past, but here are some.
Thanksgiving definitely did not go as planned. This year was my family’s year for Thanksgiving. It would be the first time seeing some of my family in quite a few years (most in two due to COVID). But the day before, Brad came down with strep. Melody and I still were able to visit my parents’ side of the family on Thanksgiving day however.
About two weeks ago, we visited Santa. Melody was nervous but also so excited. Kindergarten has really brought out the bravery in Melody. My aunt got some great pictures of Melody with Santa. And she even spoke with him for about ten minutes afterwards all about what she wanted and his favorite cookies and candy.
This year we celebrated July 4th by spending the day at my parents’ pool and seeing family we haven’t seen since Christmas 2019!
This year we did get to do a bit more for Father’s Day for Brad than we did last year. One of our favorite restaurants closed, but the location was reopened by a new owner. So we finally got to try that as well.
So we decided to keep Easter low key this year. I also scheduled my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine the day before, so we couldn’t travel. My dad worked as well. So we ended up visiting my parents after my vaccine appointment, and we spent Easter at home. Emily, Justin, and the kids came over that evening for dinner and an egg hunt. Low key and relaxing. I even got a nap in on Easter Day!
I totally meant to share these pictures yesterday, but life has happened, and I have been busy. I am hoping to get back to blogging more though! So we had these pictures taken by my aunt a few weeks ago. It took Melody a bit to warm up, but she did so well in the end!
I made an Easter Storage Basket for all of my holiday things just like I did for Valentine’s Day! I included Easter plates, Easter napkins, and Easter cupcake liners. I used the same pink bread basket.
I wanted to share with you some of the Easter baskets I made this year. I didn’t try and use another item for a basket like I have in years past. I went traditional yet practical. I am also sharing some Easter egg fillers at the end of the post!
So I absolutely love this side dish as the holidays. I actually never had it until my first holidays with Brad’s family. I have never tried to make it at home because I would be the only person to eat it. But this year I did make it for my family at Christmas. And while they tried it, my mom prefers traditional cranberry sauce (from a can of course) and no one else is a fan. But it was great, so I wanted to share.
