Do you know what happens when you have brand new kittens Thanksgiving weekend? It makes your children want to do zero things. Sure, we baked and cooked the day before and we gathered with both families on Thanksgiving, but aside from that (and Black Friday) it was difficult to get my children to leave the house! All they wanted to do was snuggle kittens and watch them play. I absolutely understand why, but there was definitely a feeling we were missing out on all of the events Thanksgiving has to offer around the Des Moines Metro.
When they were little, our weekend was filled with Disney On Ice, Festival of Trees, visiting Santa, play dates, family gatherings, etc. This year was more laid back and less busy, although we still fit in some of our traditions. We watched the parade Thanksgiving morning followed by Thanksgiving lunch at my parent's house. This was the first normal-ish Thanksgiving since Covid, but it still didn't feel like a normal Thanksgiving for some reason. I'm guessing it's due to the fact that we didn't have family coming into town (as we usually do). We spent the evening at Hub's parent's house playing games and chatting with family while eating dessert. We were at home and in bed by 10 p.m. with zero breakdowns or overly tired kids. This was a first for us!
Harrison made homemade cinnamon butter to have with the homemade bread. Both were excellent.
The minis requested Black Friday shopping. We had prepared ourselves for 5 a.m. shopping until I looked at the shopping mall's website and realized it didn't even open until 8 a.m.! The new, laid back approach to Black Friday suites us much better, so we made no rush to the stores the next day. Instead, we had a relaxing morning, went to Target and then to Jordan Creek shopping center. On the mini's lists were new Yankee candles, a new outfit, Roblox gift cards, and Mini Brands. All important things. We made plenty of time of Christmas movies and snuggling with kitties too.
Elizabeth held us up at VonMaur while she searched the sale racks. She picked some good ones and mom spent less than $30! Harrison was not impressed with the amount of time it took her to shop, but then we went to Williams Sonoma and he was happy looking at all of the bakeware.
We discovered the kittens are obsessed with all foods. No more eating on the couch on movie nights or we have kittens in our take out containers.
The annual gingerbread person was decorated and then eaten.
Saturday we decorated the house and watched another Christmas movie. Hubs and Elizabeth hung our Christmas lights while Max, Harrison, Zeus the pup, and I went hiking in one of our favorite area in Central Iowa.
We love Brown's Woods for a number of reasons, the top being that it's only ten minutes from our house.
As usual, our Sunday was for organizing, homework, catching up with friends, and lounging around. We added the cuddly kittens to the mix.
I overheard the youngest talking and talking away in her room. I peeked in and noticed she was talking to a sleeping kitten.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about our Thanksgiving weekend. It was refreshing and downright wonderful to end the weekend well rested, but part of me was yearning for the children that wanted to be out and about, enjoying what the community has to offer. We're definitely in that teenage/tween phase, plus with the new kitten additions, home was the cool place to be.
