Today

Outside my window: it’s another cold, grey morning here in Wisconsin. The weather has been fairly blah lately with some rain and some blah. We’re keeping warm indoors and enjoying the colors and lights of the Christmas tree. I know it’s not even December yet, but I’ve been in the Christmas spirit since like September this year, so I’m ready to just embrace it and enjoy!

This weekend: was a long Thanksgiving weekend! Thursday we had a Turkey dinner with some good friends. The morning was spent cooking and playing tic tac toe with the kids.

Then in the afternoon there was placemat coloring while we got dinner ready and plated.

Then of course, there was eating.

Our first Turkey – it gave us a lot of grief from thawing to brining to prepping and baking, but it came out delicious in the end! And we took lots of notes to make the process go smoother next year.

All the kids eating

The spread: turkey, homemade dinner rolls, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and homemade cranberry sauce. Basically a ton of delicious homemade food!

We also: played with fun puzzles at Dan’s office and went to see the new Muppets movie which was soooooooooooo good. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really really should.

Right now I’m reading: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster and actually pretty close to finishing it. I am really enjoying this book – it’s terrifically funny and it’s somewhat motivating, too, which is always nice. This morning Dan even made me log my calories again. Probably got tired of my nightly update about all the progress Jen Lancaster was making with meanwhile no progress on my end.

Plans for this week: tonight I have my first photography class. I will be taking intermediate and then advanced classes for the next three weeks. Hopefully I learn some fun stuff / but don’t get way in over my head!

I’ve also got book club this week, though I didn’t read the book. Shhh… And then this weekend I’m doing a community service project with my meetup group – we’re doing the Adopt a Family Shopping thing, should be fun.

Pins you should click:

How amazingly delicious do these Quadruple Chocolate Cherry Cookies look?

I love this idea for a family tablecloth to use at the holidays.

I might try making these cinnamon ornaments with the kids.

I’ve found a ton of great Christmas gift wrap ideas on Pinterest (see more here) but this one is my current favorite.

One last pictures to share before I go: our house decorated with lights – we kept it simple this year but I’m pretty thrilled with how it came out: