Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday but it has become very complicated with family matters and also my sister just basically won't eat turkey now. I mean, is turkey wonderful? Not really. But it's a tradition. You put it with some dressing, gravy, and mashed potatoes & you're good. But we're having Thanksgiving at my house and I'm doing ham to please them (despite the blasphemy). Holidays just aren't like they were when I was younger.
I most definitely give Thanksgiving a season. To me, thanksgiving has all the things I love about Christmas (food, family, games, downtime) without the thing I despise (gifts-how do I even know what to buy these kids?!?).
I would just like to say that I love Thanksgiving SO much but I view it as a holiday that is a part of the Christmas SEASON. So it gets its own day! Just not it’s own season 🤷🏻♀️
Here's the thing about skipping Thanksgiving. What it really represents is skipping fully half of fall. I live in South Texas where we barely get any fall as it is, and you're going to roll in here with Christmas commercials before Halloween? Absolutely not. Also, I'm the weirdo that kind of prefers the Hallmark fall movies to the Christmas ones, and they are shown for approximately two weeks out of the year if you're lucky.
I deeply appreciate the Dr. Wright taking y'alls shenanigans completely in stride. This episode helped to slightly make up for the time when I got to go to one of his lectures in London, but when the day came I was horribly jet-lagged from an emergency trip home and back a few days prior. I also ended up sitting pretty close to the front, so instead of taking in all of the brilliant things I'm sure he was saying, the vast majority of my mental and physical energy was occupied with not falling asleep directly in front of NT Wright.
I have decided I will be adopting your “no move November” policy as much as I can! Halloween season wiped me out this year, and I just want to hibernate.
Adding my vote to Christmas after Halloween, but just as an experiment for this year. I’m feeling all kinds of nostalgia after not having a true Thanksgiving last year (being in the rehab hospital) and then not being able to put out Christmas decor at all (thanks, COVID for stealing all December joy 🤨). And what I’ve realized is that I missed the holiday decor more than I missed the Thanksgiving food. And with sister relationships fractured for years, there’s no gathering. So this year I’m going to have my niece decorate the house for Christmas in the next couple weeks and celebrate Thanksgiving on the day only. (We’ll be following the @loswhit schedule: Christmas season = Nov 1-21 + Black Friday – Dec 31; Thanksgiving = Nov 22-24) Because I’m not able to cook, we’ll be getting food from a restaurant and just enjoying a meal then returning to Xmas.
This year being all about recovery has really made me evaluate what matters and what truly doesn’t. And through the lens of what I can physically accomplish. I’m just celebrating the fact that my mom and I have been able to function on our own together, without needing much outside help on a daily basis. This year has been about finding the joy in this difficult season of life, and I get the most joy from Christmas. So it was an easy choice! I’ll let you know at the end of the year if eight weeks of Christmas decor became tiresome. 😬
It won’t 🤣ask me how I know… I don’t decorate super early but I leave it up super late. Like my tree sometimes stays up until March. I undecorate it and my daughter puts hearts on it for Valentine’s Day. 🥰 enjoy every minute of the sparkle!! 💖
🍂 it finally feels like fall here (at least for today) and I'm trying to soak up every bit of it
🍪 I made cookies with our Halloween candy (literally just replaced the chocolate chips in a regular recipe with chopped candy bars) and they were so freaking delicious
📚 I finally have a whole day with no commitments so I'm planning to stay on my couch and catch up on all the books I keep checking out and piling up!
Oh my goshhhhhhhh those Halloween candy cookies sound amazing. If you ever get a chance to go to Salt & Straw ice cream at Disney Springs next October, they make an ice cream with very similar vibes and it’s sooooooo good. Enjoy your low commitment today! That will most certainly be me on Sunday. 🥰
I'm super grateful for this newsletter. Good reminders from the week that's past and helps me re-center after hearing hard news.
Does anyone love the Joyspun line from Walmart like me? Their pajamas, panties, etc. are so comfy and they have a waffle long sleeve pajama shirt as well that's way cheaper but still super nice!
I was a big jump straight into Christmas after Halloween pre-kids, but post kids, I need that train to slow waaaayyy down. We eat Thanksgiving dinner and then go right to Christmas while doing the dishes.
i just had a memory of my college boyfriend breaking both of his elbows after tripping after trying to jump over a chain at a hiking trail. It was awful! I'm so happy that your broken wrists are behind you!
Welcome back! I also really love Thanksgiving. 🍂🥰🍁 In my favorite years I have a Friendsgiving too, so I can really live it up. That was a great tiktok about the 5&15 emotional disconnect. I'm a human development nerd, and wish I'd known it was a study discipline before I spent all my money on an English Degree. And Nate Bargatze killed!
🎃 Halloween was a blast! We saw the best costumes this year! My faves were: two little Dorothy's from the Wizard of Oz with sparkly shoes, three tiny Wednesday Adam's, lots of dinosaurs - including a kid riding one! A rocket ship+astronaut, a backhoe, and a hilarious Mike Wazowski. 😍 Two hours of joyful respite from The World Burning. We got lots of compliments on our homemade Uno Card costumes, and several kids told us our station was their favorite (because it had a game). So now I want to bring two cars next year. My poor husband.
Looking forward to catching up in the comments. Very excited that I only have two meetings today!
Welcome back and hurray for NO CASTS! So happy that you are back to excellent wrist health. Thanks for inviting such fun friends to substitute teach for you, too. It's so good to have you back.
Loved the womanhood portal article! I'm well past the midlife point, but I enjoy generating an existential crisis now and then to keep me on my toes. She's right that you care less about others' opinions but the trade off is the increased load of parents needing care plus adult children who can slide into dangerous territory, and the pressure of feeling responsible for keeping everyone alive and relatively happy. (And yes, I get that I'm the only one putting that pressure on me, but here we are.)
YOU'RE BACCCCCK! What a happy surprise in my inbox this chilly Friday morning (30 degrees and no coats at the bus stop kinda day). I also love me a Thanskgiving lead in and am planning to take down the gravestones this weekend and keep the plaid and pumpkins going for another few weeks. To feasting! (and gratitude, obviously)
Treasures: the Taylor Swift lyrics sprinkled into the latest season of Loki (Tom Hiddleston has inspired some of my very favorite Swift songs) and the Mean Girls Black Friday ad. Can we just make that into a full length feature film? Would go see immediately.
May your heat be stronger than it is in my co-working space and your no move November begin this weekend!
I give thanks to God every day, every day is Thanksgiving ... https://liborsoural.substack.com/p/painting-ya-peeling-me-like-a-tapestry
Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday but it has become very complicated with family matters and also my sister just basically won't eat turkey now. I mean, is turkey wonderful? Not really. But it's a tradition. You put it with some dressing, gravy, and mashed potatoes & you're good. But we're having Thanksgiving at my house and I'm doing ham to please them (despite the blasphemy). Holidays just aren't like they were when I was younger.
I most definitely give Thanksgiving a season. To me, thanksgiving has all the things I love about Christmas (food, family, games, downtime) without the thing I despise (gifts-how do I even know what to buy these kids?!?).
I would just like to say that I love Thanksgiving SO much but I view it as a holiday that is a part of the Christmas SEASON. So it gets its own day! Just not it’s own season 🤷🏻♀️
Here's the thing about skipping Thanksgiving. What it really represents is skipping fully half of fall. I live in South Texas where we barely get any fall as it is, and you're going to roll in here with Christmas commercials before Halloween? Absolutely not. Also, I'm the weirdo that kind of prefers the Hallmark fall movies to the Christmas ones, and they are shown for approximately two weeks out of the year if you're lucky.
I deeply appreciate the Dr. Wright taking y'alls shenanigans completely in stride. This episode helped to slightly make up for the time when I got to go to one of his lectures in London, but when the day came I was horribly jet-lagged from an emergency trip home and back a few days prior. I also ended up sitting pretty close to the front, so instead of taking in all of the brilliant things I'm sure he was saying, the vast majority of my mental and physical energy was occupied with not falling asleep directly in front of NT Wright.
I have decided I will be adopting your “no move November” policy as much as I can! Halloween season wiped me out this year, and I just want to hibernate.
REMINDER: there’s a spreadsheet of mailing addresses for those who like receiving/sending cards or gifts. Add your name if you want!
https://bit.ly/lil-swipes-birthdays
Adding my vote to Christmas after Halloween, but just as an experiment for this year. I’m feeling all kinds of nostalgia after not having a true Thanksgiving last year (being in the rehab hospital) and then not being able to put out Christmas decor at all (thanks, COVID for stealing all December joy 🤨). And what I’ve realized is that I missed the holiday decor more than I missed the Thanksgiving food. And with sister relationships fractured for years, there’s no gathering. So this year I’m going to have my niece decorate the house for Christmas in the next couple weeks and celebrate Thanksgiving on the day only. (We’ll be following the @loswhit schedule: Christmas season = Nov 1-21 + Black Friday – Dec 31; Thanksgiving = Nov 22-24) Because I’m not able to cook, we’ll be getting food from a restaurant and just enjoying a meal then returning to Xmas.
This year being all about recovery has really made me evaluate what matters and what truly doesn’t. And through the lens of what I can physically accomplish. I’m just celebrating the fact that my mom and I have been able to function on our own together, without needing much outside help on a daily basis. This year has been about finding the joy in this difficult season of life, and I get the most joy from Christmas. So it was an easy choice! I’ll let you know at the end of the year if eight weeks of Christmas decor became tiresome. 😬
It won’t 🤣ask me how I know… I don’t decorate super early but I leave it up super late. Like my tree sometimes stays up until March. I undecorate it and my daughter puts hearts on it for Valentine’s Day. 🥰 enjoy every minute of the sparkle!! 💖
Good for you for figuring out the things that matter to you and finding things to try. I hope your season is full of Sparkle and delight!
Sparkle. That’s what I need! 😊
🍂 it finally feels like fall here (at least for today) and I'm trying to soak up every bit of it
🍪 I made cookies with our Halloween candy (literally just replaced the chocolate chips in a regular recipe with chopped candy bars) and they were so freaking delicious
📚 I finally have a whole day with no commitments so I'm planning to stay on my couch and catch up on all the books I keep checking out and piling up!
The perfect autumn day. 😊
Oh my goshhhhhhhh those Halloween candy cookies sound amazing. If you ever get a chance to go to Salt & Straw ice cream at Disney Springs next October, they make an ice cream with very similar vibes and it’s sooooooo good. Enjoy your low commitment today! That will most certainly be me on Sunday. 🥰
Ooh, that sounds like the perfect ice cream flavor!
It’s called The Great Candycopia!
I'm super grateful for this newsletter. Good reminders from the week that's past and helps me re-center after hearing hard news.
Does anyone love the Joyspun line from Walmart like me? Their pajamas, panties, etc. are so comfy and they have a waffle long sleeve pajama shirt as well that's way cheaper but still super nice!
I was a big jump straight into Christmas after Halloween pre-kids, but post kids, I need that train to slow waaaayyy down. We eat Thanksgiving dinner and then go right to Christmas while doing the dishes.
i just had a memory of my college boyfriend breaking both of his elbows after tripping after trying to jump over a chain at a hiking trail. It was awful! I'm so happy that your broken wrists are behind you!
Welcome back! I also really love Thanksgiving. 🍂🥰🍁 In my favorite years I have a Friendsgiving too, so I can really live it up. That was a great tiktok about the 5&15 emotional disconnect. I'm a human development nerd, and wish I'd known it was a study discipline before I spent all my money on an English Degree. And Nate Bargatze killed!
🎃 Halloween was a blast! We saw the best costumes this year! My faves were: two little Dorothy's from the Wizard of Oz with sparkly shoes, three tiny Wednesday Adam's, lots of dinosaurs - including a kid riding one! A rocket ship+astronaut, a backhoe, and a hilarious Mike Wazowski. 😍 Two hours of joyful respite from The World Burning. We got lots of compliments on our homemade Uno Card costumes, and several kids told us our station was their favorite (because it had a game). So now I want to bring two cars next year. My poor husband.
Looking forward to catching up in the comments. Very excited that I only have two meetings today!
A backhoe! 😂
Tiny little guy, and he was so proud to be "a digger".
😂
Erin,
Welcome back and hurray for NO CASTS! So happy that you are back to excellent wrist health. Thanks for inviting such fun friends to substitute teach for you, too. It's so good to have you back.
Loved the womanhood portal article! I'm well past the midlife point, but I enjoy generating an existential crisis now and then to keep me on my toes. She's right that you care less about others' opinions but the trade off is the increased load of parents needing care plus adult children who can slide into dangerous territory, and the pressure of feeling responsible for keeping everyone alive and relatively happy. (And yes, I get that I'm the only one putting that pressure on me, but here we are.)
Happy weekend to all!
YOU'RE BACCCCCK! What a happy surprise in my inbox this chilly Friday morning (30 degrees and no coats at the bus stop kinda day). I also love me a Thanskgiving lead in and am planning to take down the gravestones this weekend and keep the plaid and pumpkins going for another few weeks. To feasting! (and gratitude, obviously)
Treasures: the Taylor Swift lyrics sprinkled into the latest season of Loki (Tom Hiddleston has inspired some of my very favorite Swift songs) and the Mean Girls Black Friday ad. Can we just make that into a full length feature film? Would go see immediately.
May your heat be stronger than it is in my co-working space and your no move November begin this weekend!
The bag over the cast stage is the worst!
Just found this recipe for Halloween candy cookies and will be making this weekend
https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinhmallery/p/the-gathering-basket-november-edition-629?r=es1i2&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I really appreciate the Man Enough podcast. Another great resource for supporting boys is re.masculine
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxynSTbyyvJ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
He did some kind of dissertation project about boys and their emotional and mental health and I so value his stuff.
I have a 12 year old son, 11 year old daughter, 9 year old son and almost 3 year old daughter. Navigating the emotional landmines is tough!
Copy and pasted the wrong link for the cookies
https://www.bakedbymelissa.com/blog/sweet-recipes/halloween-candy-brown-butter-cookies