Thanksgiving 2018

Since I haven't gone to St. George for Thanksgiving the past several years, I always find other things to do to celebrate the holiday week/weekend.

Wednesday was a pretty low key day. I went down to Lehi to pick up my packet for the Thankful 13 race the next day.

Celsey invited family over to celebrate Rem's birthday. 

I ran the Thankful 13 half marathon on Thanksgiving morning.

I hurried home to get ready to go to the Anderson's for Thanksgiving dinner. They are always so kind to include me with their family. After the running joke 2 years earlier about barely eating (since that was meal #1 out of 3), I made sure to fill my plate this time. 

We enjoyed a nice meal, relaxed in the hot tub and pool, and had a great day.

The rest of the weekend was also pretty relaxed. It was perfect.

Christmas 2017

I spent Christmas in California with Chelsea and her family again this year. It is much more fun to be where the kids are. Hopefully one of these years all the family will be able to be together, but it is hard with so many people and everyone being scattered everywhere.

I went the day before my birthday so I got to celebrate with them. I think the kids were more excited for my birthday than I was. We had a fun time going out to dinner and seeing Christmas lights.


We spent a lot of time on the trampoline. Kenzie is old enough to jump although the older kids still want to jump higher than she does.

I wish Christmas Eve was always on Sunday. We went to church, had a pretty low key afternoon, and had dinner with some of their friends.





After dinner we looked at lights. We came home and opened pajamas and acted out the Christmas story.

Karlee and Kenzie both wanted to be Mary.

We had a fun morning opening Christmas presents. The kids loved everything and made it really fun.










We got brave and made a turkey and homemade rolls. They turned out ok, but we could definitely use a little more practice.

Karlee was so excited for her chokers and JoJo bow.

We played some games.

and all took a turn with tiny hands and laughed and laughed

Kenzie really liked my diet coke-oops


I had a great visit. I'm lucky to have a job that gives me a Christmas break so I can spend a decent amount of time with family.

Holiday Shopping

*sponsored post-all opinions are my own

Let's talk shopping. It is cyber Monday so there's all kinds of shopping talk happening on the internet today. I'm far too late to talk cyber Monday deals. There are plenty of posts with those. I am still looking for a few gifts and hope to make a few more purchases today.

images via uncommon goods

Are you a Black Friday or Cyber Monday shopper? I don't really consider myself a super shopper on either day, but I do tend to buy a few things here and there. The big rage last year was the instant pot, and it seems like it is still pretty popular.

I totally missed Small Business Saturday this year, and I am really sad about it. I like supporting small businesses especially local businesses. The day got away from me, and before I knew it, it was over.

There is still time to buy unique gifts including jewelry, tabletop gifts, and other handmade items. I recently discovered Uncommon Goods-a privately owned retailer based in Brooklyn, NY. All products are safe to the environment, people, and animals so you can feel good about purchasing their products. They aim to give artists and designers a platform for their work. Many of the items are handmade, and many are made from recycled and upcycled materials. If you're like me and still looking for a few Christmas gifts, this is the perfect spot to shop. They have jewelry and apparel for women and a lot of great options for men of various ages. 

I have a handful of things I still need to buy, and I am definitely looking at Uncommon Goods for some of my gift giving needs.

How is your shopping going? Are you taking advantage of any deals?

book review-The Nativity Pageant

It's hard to believe it is already time to talk about the holidays. It seems like the year was just starting, and now we are almost to the end. I want time to slow down. They holidays are some of my favorite times of the year, and I want time to stand still while we enjoy it.
I'm a sucker for tradition-especially holiday tradition. Growing up we always read the Christmas story as part of our Christmas Eve traditions, but we never really acted it out. I am not sure why. We just never did. When Chelsea's kids got old enough, she started the tradition of acting it out rather than just reading the nativity story. Her older kids are reading well enough to start reading part of the story. This year will be the perfect year for the new book, The Nativity Pageant. It uses the exact words from the scriptures with easy to locate props and costumes to make the story of the nativity come to life. It is short enough to fit very nicely into our Christmas Eve traditions. Karlee will love being in charge. She can gather the costumes, and assign the props. It will be perfect. The Nativity Pageant can be purchased on amazon for anyone interested in including this as part of your family traditions this year. What other holiday traditions do you have?

*I received a copy of The Nativity Pageant for review. All opinions are my own.

unblogged bloggable-celebrating thanksgiving

As long as I have lived in Utah, I have always gone to St. George for Thanksgiving. It's a nice escape from the weather, and it's fun to spend time with family. After so much travel in the fall, I decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year. I am so lucky to have so many people in my life that treat me like family. 

I started the day at Celsey's parents' house. Baby Rem was only a few days old, and I was in heaven holding him. 

I wasn't planning to eat there, but dinner was ready a little early. Everyone laughed at the small amount on my plate. The food was so good, but I had another meal an hour later. 

I went to the Larsen's for the main meal. The table was beautiful as usual, and the food was amazing. 

Finally I went to Tiffany's house to be with her family. I was pretty full by this point so I didn't eat much. We went to Target not necessarily for anything specific. It was crazy but fun to go. 

It was definitely different not being with family this year, but it was nice to stay in town this year. I had the rest of the weekend to get things done. 

 

birthday celebrations

sometimes i complain about having a too close to christmas birthday because people are too busy to really celebrate with me. i definitely can't complain this year. i basically celebrated my birthday all month.

i went to dinner with my old roommates. keeping with tradition we went to j dawgs. we had the best time. i sure miss those girls.

i got the most wonderful birthday basket from my running frieds.

i went to rodizio with friends for dinner. laurann made a diet coke cake with a singing candle. we had a delicious dinner, and i was very spoiled with the perfect gifts.

tiffany and sage have a tradition of buying each other a new outfit for their birthdays and included me in the tradition this year. they bought this cardigan, v neck shirt, and another shirt. 

i flew to california the night before my birthday. the kids were so excited, and that made me really excited to be there. they wanted me to open presents first thing. chelsea and i went to lunch and shopping. 

we went to red robin for a birthday dinner. chelsea and i did a little more quick shopping after dinner.

i kind of can't believe how old i'm getting, but i did have a really fun time celebrating this month.