Can you believe that it is November already? I am having a hard time wrapping my head around it. This is going to be a big month at our house.
We started the month off by travelling to Canada this past weekend. James served his mission there, and we decided to return to visit the area and to visit with FALL! I love fall leaves and they were plentiful. I will share pictures and details of the trip soon.
I am starting a new job next week. I know you are probably thinking to yourself that I just started my current job two months ago, and it took me six months to actually find it. You would be right. I did. I also got an offer that I could not refuse for a new position. James and I thought and prayed hard about the decision and it just felt right. It will be a new adventure. I will also still get to commute into the office with James, have the same hours, and still get Fridays off. (I love my Fridays off!)
I am getting our house holiday ready. We are having James’ aunts come for Thanksgiving. Today I started making lists of things I need to clean and organize and lists of what we are going to eat while they are here so I can cook ahead of time, and lists of things that we can do with them. Did you know I really like lists? I do. Now, I just need to get the things done that are on the lists. I feel like my cleaning and organizing skills have slipped since I have started working. I had gotten into bad habits of taking my time and doing a little every day. Now that I am limited on my time I am trying to figure out how to cram it all in on the weekend.
Christmas presents are far from finished. Whoever came up with the idea to do a mostly homemade Christmas was crazy. Oh right, that was me! I need to have some presents done by Thanksgiving and the rest need to be done pretty quickly behind that so they can get into the mail.
Did I mention that this is the first year that I will not spend Christmas with my family? James is my family and we will be spending Christmas together, but we will not be going “home”. I am trying to come up with things that we can do to make Christmas feel like Christmas to us. I know all of our traditions do not need to be started in the first year, but we need to do something. I have a few ideas, but will let you know what we end up doing.
With all of the hustle and bustle that will be going on at our house this month, I want to take some time to stop and remember what I am thankful for. That is what this season should really be about, shouldn’t it?
I was listening to a radio show tonight while I was waiting for Carrie to come out from her equestrian team practice. The woman that hosts the show says that every day in November she says one thing that she is thankful for. I thought that was a really neat idea. SO—-I want you to know that I am thankful for “you”! You are a wonderful niece and I love you!
I’m jealous of the trip to Canada! It sounds like a lot of fun..and I’ve seen the awesome homemade gifts that you’ve done so I’m sure they will be great. I wish you were coming “home” for Christmas causes I’m going to be in SoCal for a week with my family..oh well..next time. We are going to have to plan something for July or August with Jessie for sure..so start thinking of a way we can have fun and not take showers for a straight week again!