November brought us a quiet, low key Thanksgiving. Grandma Lorna rolled into town the Monday before Thanksgiving and we loved having her here with us for the week. Hailey joined later Thanksgiving Day and was with us until Saturday afternoon; we were so glad to have her with us even if it was short. Decorating the house for Christmas, Christmas crafting, the Mandarin Festival in Auburn, puzzles in the living room, a return trip to Apple Hill (Grandma had never been), Bebe living her best life roaming around the house and getting sleepy on the couch – all good signs of November. We loved our weekly Facetime with Simon in Maine and were grateful that he was able to have a good Thanksgiving. Here are a few photos from November!

I put together a capsule of outfits for my upcoming trip to Paris so that I had a better idea of what to pack. Can you tell I am anxiously anticipating this long awaited trip?

Sophie worked for Miller Farms at the annual Mandarin Festival; they loved her. Sam and I enjoyed roaming around, snacking on all of the treats. We found an amazing tapestry from Turkmenistan that we bought immediately to arch over our bed. It is the perfect addition to our very global looking bedroom.

I painted and weaved up a storm during November! I created a patchwork weaving (that I am still trying to finish), painted Christmas ornaments and painted a raw wood nutcracker. The nutcracker turned out WAY better than I had anticipated; it is a great addition to our collection of nutcrackers.

The puppy genuinely achieved new levels of cuteness. Sophie took to dressing her in Christmas clothes and it was entirely too adorable. Until Bebe started eating her clothes…then we were all done dressing the dog. Oh well. We call her a puppy and she acts like a puppy but she is almost five years old so we are just accepting that she will likely have a “puppy personality” for life.

We loved talking to our cute missionary. Look at that smile!

We returned to Apple Hill, this time with Grandma in tow. She loved it and it was the perfect fall, pre-Christmas activity.

The kids loved having Grandma time and we loved having Mom/Lorna time. This is her second Thanksgiving with us and I think we are going to try and make this a regular thing!

The house looked Christmasy. Honestly, this year felt different for me with EVERYTHING. With Simon gone and it being a heavy, hard year for our famiy, the holidays were tough for me. I decorated but only put up a fraction of our things because I just didn’t have it in me. The trees were lovely, the nutcrackers looked great and a few other decorations made the house feel festive. I don’t think the kids or anyone else noticed the difference in our decor but paring down felt just right for me. Maybe next year I’ll go all out…or maybe not :).

We had, what I believe to be, the largest and most challenging burn pile since we moved into our property. So. Freaking. Hard. We got a lot done but we were all wiped out by the time it was over. And that thing burned and smoldered a full 24 hours; it was a hot one.

We took a family trip to Old Town Sac while Hailey and Grandma were in town and it was great as always. The place was decked out for Christmas so everything felt festive. We discovered a Kenyan shop while walking around so I picked up a few ornaments for our tree to remember Simon and earrings for myself for Christmas. What are the chances there is a Kenyan store in Old Town Sac? SO fun; it made Sam and I excited to travel there in 2023.

I completely cleaned up and redid Simon’s bedroom into a combo Simon room and guest bedroom. I wall papered the main back wall, put in a king size bed and updated some decor.

We sold our big sectional and redid our downstairs living room into a game room. Stay tuned for the photos of the new pool table and love sac bean bags; we LOVED finally doing something with this space.

Thanks November 2021; you were pretty good to us.