a wonderful week of festivities, time together and traditions, and i am definitely so sad to see it end. the only consolation is that today brings december, the first day of advent, and the world's official christmas season kickoff!
we celebrated thanksgiving with gmom, gdad, aunt alli, uncle merrit and baby madden the sunday before thanksgiving, and it was complete with each of the girls' pie requests homemade by gmom- cherry for betsy, chocolate for eloise, apple for lucy, and pumpkin for the traditionals of the bunch :) it was a special day of the girls decorating their own granddaughters' tree, delicious food and lots of loving on their baby cousin.
betsy helped prepare her preschool thanksgiving feast, and meme and i joined in for the eating portion of the day- yummm ;)
grandparents' day at school- the girls were well represented and so, so excited for their class performances!
ihop for holiday hotcakes with meme, joining the masses for frozen 2 with frozen-themed goodies [super fun!], and one of my favorite thanksgiving holidays to date. we had plans for thanksgiving dinner on the plaza, but when thursday rolled around and it was rainy and cold, we opted to stay home in pajamas, watch movies, enjoy the pies the girls helped me bake, have a home-cooked meal and get to work on our gingerbread village. it was fabulous.
we spent black friday at union station, pierpont's for brunch, crown center for window shopping, then home for another movie night. holidays in kansas city really are so magical.
annual bake day with meme- the most special tradition! 4+ hours of baking treats for our neighbors and loved ones.
at the beginning of november, the girls wrote letters to santa using a north pole address i found online, and within a week eloise heard right back. it was a super sweet letter, but only 1/3 of my kids got a response. lucy & betsy have been asking every few days if their letters are lost in the mail, and then much to my surprise, 2 more letters arrived! the girls were absolutely giddy and lucy ripped those babies open and started reading them right away when i picked her up from school. as she was reading outloud, my heart stopped knowing the information was beyond anything we had included in their letters to santa. i texted jon in a panic that big brother was watching- knowing bea goes by betsy/beatrice interchangeably, etc. he responded that santa knows when i’m awake about the time i realized that he, himself, is santa <3 he was so sad that the other 2 hadn’t received a response, that he created the same paper heading and mailed the letters from his office, asking a coworker to hand address the envelopes. this, to me, is the sweetest season’s greeting <3
christmas dresses are ironed and ready to wear [thank you for that 3 hour job, meme!!], miss cinnamon arrived this morning [they were more excited than ever!!], we are here for this holly jolly holiday and are grateful every day for the gift of Jesus' birth.
xoxo,
-ivy
