Our Thanksgiving is pretty quiet.  It’s not fancy and we stay home.  We decided a long time ago that we will always make holidays special.  We don’t have to go anywhere or have anyone over.  We don’t live very close to family and they prefer not traveling to us.  Otherwise, we’d be happy to host.  I loved visiting my Grandma’s house on Thanksgiving.  I would see my aunts, uncles and cousins.  I wanted that for my children, but that’s not how the cards fell for us.  Just because my situation isn’t what I always envisioned, doesn’t mean it can’t still be awesome.

Our hope is to create memories for our kids.  We don’t just skip cooking because there is nobody to cook for.  We have US to cook for!  So we spent the day before Thanksgiving baking and daddy brined the turkey.  My oldest (12 year old) daughter didn’t want to participate in the Thanksgiving preparations.  I let her have a pass.  Layla (7 year old) was so happy to bake!  I let her take on the baking of the cupcakes this year.  She did most of it all by herself.  She was so proud.  She even iced them all.  I handled the stove part.  Then we baked peanut butter blossom cookies and late that night I made a pumpkin pie.  She helped me do the Christmas cards, as she does every year.

We decided to decorate the tree a couple of days early.  The kids had been home for a snow day so we started baking early.  We had the evening time available and we are heading on vacation soon.  I would have taken some photos of the kids decorating the tree, but with three kids it went very quickly!

We spent Thanksgiving playing games, checking out the Black Friday ads, did a little online shopping and, of course, cooking.  We didn’t get dressed up or have fancy place settings.  I will try to do a little better for Christmas dinner (which is also spent home, just us).  My husband has been home since Wednesday and we have had fun just relaxing and spending time together.  I’ve been doing some work on Saturday and Sunday, but at least I’m home.  Thanks for stopping by to have a peek into our Thanksgiving.  I have so very much to be thankful for!