November 2024

 Well, I blinked and November was over. It was quite the month with some fun highs and some really sad lows. 

We started the month celebrating friendsgiving with our co-op. We enjoyed stories, games, crafts, and yummy food! 

Our school time mostly consisted of learning about the first Thanksgiving with books, videos, crafts, baking, and even a trip to the local history museum to play in the pilgrim/pioneer room.

We even sprinkled in a couple pre-Thanksgiving dinners just for practice ;)

The big turkey day was spent in Michigan this year. We spent Wednesday making the 6 hour drive. We stopped halfway to stretch our legs and play at a children's museum. And that was a game changer for us. The kids were able to tire themselves out just in time to nap for the tail end of the trip.

And then Thanksgiving was spent at my parent's house. Of course, we watched the parade, ate lots of food, played outside, and spent time with family. It was a lovely day.

(yes, she fell asleep watching a movie)

The rest of the trip was spent playing in the snow, visiting with family, making Christmas crafts, eating more deviled eggs than should be allowed, getting no sleep, watching movies, attempting to catch birds, and enjoying time together. We even got to have an early Christmas with Grandma June, which was the highlight of the trip for the kids.

And of course, we've had Christmas sprinkled in our month of November too. I'm of the belief that December is just too short to enjoy all the Christmas I want to enjoy. The first exciting thing we did was take a ride on the Polar Express! We gave the kids matching jammies and told them they would need those for where we were going. We drove about 40 minutes and ended up at a train station where we loaded up and rode to the north pole! There were hot chocolate dancers, cookies the size of their heads, tickets that the conductor punched, and even a visit from Santa. It was pretty magical for them.

Another fun thing we got to experience was a ballet performance of the Nutcracker. I took the big kids to see a matinee and the ballerinas answered questions and showed us a behind the scenes look at what it takes to perform. We really enjoyed it!

And the favorite Christmas tradition of ours in November is a two-day event. The first annual tradition is a special night where we decorate Nana's tree in matching Christmas jammies that she picked out for the kids.

(In picture order Eleanor (2), Isla (6), Elouise (1.5), Easton (4), Ewan (4))

Then the following day all the Ready girls have their Christmas tea at a local tea room. We get all dressed up, enjoy a lunch served on tiers, and drink a yummy Christmas tea. It's become one of our favorite days! And this year the boys and Pop Pop had their own special day too including duck pin bowling and pizza.

The rest of the month was full of good food, sweet friends, and lots of memories made!

We had a FULL and good month, but the ending to our month was really hard and sad. After 12 years with our Aussie Lou, we had to say goodbye. She had been having some health issues the last couple of months and she quickly declined at the end of November. We got home from our Thanksgiving trip to Michigan and she passed away that night. I think she was waiting for us to come home. It was a really difficult thing for our family. Aussie was our first baby and our sweet pup. She will be greatly missed, but we are grateful to have had 12 of her 14 years with her.