holiday ramblings & SNOW!!

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, it also means Christmas is quickly approaching! 

The turkey has been bought, the recipe books are out and the cranberries are ready to be cooked and smashed into sauce. I love Thanksgiving.... but I mostly have always loved it because family/friends gather simply to gather. There are no gifts and no other incentive other than gathering to be together and give thanks.

{this was our sunset on Wednesday night, last week}

 I miss my family a lot around Thanksgiving. I miss my Uncle, Aunt and cousins, I miss my Mom's great cooking and my Dad & Uncle carving the turkey. I miss seeing all of Jason's side of the family and enjoying a yummy feast with them. I love holidays where all of the family was in one place; my sisters and their kids, extended family and my parents. 

School time! 

I'm finding that this year, I'm missing all the fun holiday

 traditions we did each year with my parents especially. 

I asked Ethan what he's going to miss most about Christmas in California

and he said "probably just being with everyone in our family." 

Yep... that's how I feel. 

That said, I can't help but give public thanks to God for blessing us where we are. For blessing us with good friends here before we even moved here, for blessing us with a fabulous church family and for blessing us with the new friends we've made over the past year. Yes, its true that friends can't replace family, but I think when you're talking about friends who are part of the family of God, its pretty much family, no matter how you slice it. 

And as much as I absolutely love our entire family and extended family, I think I'd be set if my Mom were here. I miss her a lot.

early Monday morning, we ran out in our pj's to greet the first real snow fall! 

Yesterday {Sunday} we got snow for the first time since March! Remember when we got snow in March? It was so random because February was quite sunny and beautiful. I remember talking with our Pastor's wife one Sunday at church and she told me "even though we're heading into March, we still might see some snow. March can be the most random month out of the year, weather wise." And about 4 days later... SNOW! We were thrilled. Out on our deck dancing around, screaming with delight. I'm sure the neighbors thought something was seriously wrong with us. "Oh... they're from California, that's right." ;-) 

I've always thought its weird how Oregon, which is south of us, gets way more winter snow every year than our area does. Tonight a friend told me its because we're so close to the Puget Sound, which makes total sense. 

We weren't expecting quite so much snow today! The kids were on pins and needles last night before bed. Ethan went to bed saying "I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight, I am SO excited!" - he was asleep about 5 minutes after his head hit the pillow :) 

I'll tell you, last year we definitely had a mellow winter up here. It did get cold, but not nearly this cold, this fast. I'm still not used to looking outside and seeing beautiful blue skies, the sun shining bright and yet its cold enough to snow. Maybe by next year I'll realize I still need to bundle up, even when it looks warm'ish. 

After living here a whole year, I'm surprised the seasons 

still take my breath away the way they do. I hope it stays that way. 

{my hubby is quite the romantic} 

So, what does your Thanksgiving Day look like? 

What are fun traditions you do with family, friends or just yourselves? 

I love hearing how each family celebrates these wonderful holidays. 

I'll be making the famous breakfast casserole for us to enjoy this Thanksgiving morning, we'll make our family Starbucks run, where everyone gets to order a drink and visit Aunt Emily at the same time :) We're thrilled to have Emily here with us this holiday season. Its SO fun having a little bit of family in the area. We also have a tradition of watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving movie and then we'll be going to our friend's house for the big feast. 

Not sure we'll watch Thanksgiving football this year... I guess we can let that slip for one year, even though college ball is the best. 
My sister told us that Joel McHale {star of E's funny show Soup} comes into her store every Thanksgiving morning to get his cup of Joe... so I think we'll sneak down there and say hi to him this year; tell him how funny we think he is :) 

about an hour after we went outside, the snow really began to fall. 

And then the snow fun really began! 

Oh! I'm going to put together a fun Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt. 

I'm going to hide "seasonal" treasures around the house and as they find them throughout the day, the person with the treasure gets to share 2 things they're thankful for. 

I think it will help keep us in the spirit of thanks all day long. 

Thankfully when we bought some snow clothes on sale this past year, 

we anticipated just the right sizes for this winter. 

I'm learning that snow clothes run quite large. 

We're excited today is Daddy's day off, so he can play in the snow with us! 

Looks like Jason will be working from home all week, since we're 

expecting just as much {or more} snow tomorrow. 

my sister came over with coffee this morning and ended up getting stuck here :) 

We're waiting it out to see when its a good time to drive her back home. 

Thankfully she lives about 1 1/2 miles down the road from us. 

Ethan and Kara would've stayed in the snow ALL day if we let them. 

Those two love being outside, no matter what. 

Rachel went out and played for about 35 minutes and then came inside announcing 

"the snow is very nice, but its freezing my buns off!" :) 

She came inside and helped me make hot chocolate and watched 

Beauty and the Beast... 

in honor of the snowy weather :) 

building a snowman... on the deck. 

I wasn't going to let Kara go out in it, since she's still getting over her cold, but after

huge alligator sized tears and pleading, I bundled her up and let her 

go play with Daddy for a few minutes. I don't think the low temps bothered our 

crazy hillbilly at all. 

our house, after the heavy snow fall. 

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone!!