Holidays Incoming

The holiday season is looming and I know already the next month is going to speed by in no time. I already have a fairly big to do list including lots of shopping, baking, and traveling (well not that much traveling but with 3 age 3 and under it seems like a lot).

To start there's less than a week till Thanksgiving! This year I will be hosting Thanksgiving and cooking most of it at our house. For the past few years we were in a small two bedroom apartment in the middle of the city so it was much more comfortable to get out of town and go up to North Carolina to visit hubby's grandparents. This year we finally have the space and comfortable surroundings to host a celebration here. So my mom, MIL, and sister-in-laws will be coming here for the holiday. It won't be as many people as years past but there will still be loads of food and lots of love which is what counts.

  Exactly a week after Thanksgiving will be another celebration, though not a holiday of course, my 25th birthday! Wow I feel like I'm getting old, halfway to 50 and all that, but better to have the birthday than not for sure. We're not planning anything really and for the kids it's just an extra excuse for cake but still I'm a little excited. I've noticed on many forms recently I have to select 18-24 or 25-30 so someone out there seems to think 25 is a bigger deal if I get to move up a whole check box right?

A couple days after my birthday will be MIL's. Since she is staying in town for a bit right now I will probably try to have a family celebration for her. Last year she was here for her birthday as well and we got her a German Chocolate cheesecake and gift of a few nice scarves, wine sealer, and lots of chocolate. Not sure what we'll get her this year but chocolate will probably be involved again. She says she's already gotten the main thing she wanted, the new World of Warcraft game.

After the birthdays we will have a couple weeks till Christmas. During this time we will have to travel to North GA to visit my Dad and various extended family, and then to North Carolina to visit hubby's grandparents and aunts and uncles. We will probably do one of the trips before Christmas and one after. How long we spend will probably depend on how the road trip with three little ones goes. It's not too long a drive thankfully but still our first longer trip since E's arrival.

Christmas we will be spending at home as well. This will be the first year we can actually have a full size real Christmas tree and I plan to take advantage of that. The in-laws will be in town again for the celebrations (though not sure if that will be for the actual day of or not). My FIL will be coming from overseas and MIL is hoping for him and hubby to get some handy man stuff done together. One major thing we hope to have done is a play set in the back yard! I am very excited about this for the kids.

We're still trying to figure out if we'll be at home or in NC for New Year's but we're okay playing it by year still for now.

I also really hope to meet up with some of my more local relatives I haven't seen in way too long. Hopefully we can arrange some playdates with them as well!

So yes it will be a fairly busy month, making lots of new family memories. It should be exciting and perhaps a little overwhelming but definitely will be worth it.