Felt like we made a giant mess of our house ten times this weekend, but here we are on Monday and things look pretty cleaned up. Tis the season! We were super looking forward to Mason’s birthday party on Saturday morning but he woke up with a fever, so it had to be postponed. Still, we had a really good weekend!

Between his little cold and Thanksgiving, Dempsey hadn’t been to his gymnastics class in a few weeks so we were all excited for him to go back. Joey dropped him off at Grandma’s in the morning and as they were walking out the door, he told me “come in the car, Mama” but I had to tell him I had lots of RM content to catch up on instead 😂 Indigo dropped that morning and there was a music video to watch, a Tiny Desk Concert to obsess over and ten new tracks to play on loop. It is so very good, with “Yun,” “All Day” and “Hectic” being my current favorites!

Our boy had a good time at his class and got to hang with Grandma the rest of the day 🤍 I had a late manicure and then I met Joey and Dempsey at Edgewater for dinner. The smile on Dempsey’s face when I walked in to meet them and him exclaiming “it’s Christmas!” is one of the happiest moments of my life! I ate a veggie Reuben made of pastrami-fied celery root that was so crazy inventive and spicy in a way that I would like a lot better if I wasn’t so scared of third trimester heartburn! Afterward, we played a few rounds of Guess Who, took a picture of Dempsey in front of one of the many trees they have set up inside the marketplace, then stopped at a house I’d passed on my way over that was all decorated for Christmas. We made it through almost all of Christmas Vacation after we put Dempsey to bed 😂

I was in the kitchen mixing up batter for buttermilk waffles on Saturday morning when we got the news that Mason’s party was being postponed ☹ Instead we ate our waffles (plus we made a bunch more for the freezer!), went to Home Depot (Dempsey cried for his juice the entire drive there but was a happy boy again once he had it in his hands) then drove to the park on Tennyson. I stopped into the new Huckleberry Roasters for a coffee then joined the boys and for about ten minutes we kept asking Dempsey if he wanted to go down the swirly slide and he kept telling us “NO!” then he suddenly just decided to go for it and ended up loving it! So cute/fun to watch him come to things in his own time.

Wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents during nap time and later on Joey cooked us a very good dinner of braised chicken thighs, butter-roasted carrots and wild rice and even though Joey thought he oversalted all of it, Dempsey and I were both big big fans! Carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes seem to be on the list of vegetables he’ll eat right now and I’ll take it. He even took some bites of braised leek! After bedtime for Dempsey, Joey and I watched The Apartment and don’t get me wrong, I liked it and thought Shirley MacLaine was a delight, but Jack Lemmon was kind of too goofy to take seriously as a romantic lead and it was weird when he told her he loved her but they never even kissed??

Debated ordering in for Sunday breakfast but opted to eat in and we all wanted something different. “Cream wheat” for Dempsey, an egg sandwich with sausage and cheese for me and hashbrowns, over easy eggs and toast for Joey. The dishes we dirtied though! 😫 I also made some freezer breakfast sandwiches for after our baby girl arrives, so we can have something simple to heat up in the microwave when needed. I baked the eggs and they were so fluffy that these sandwiches were TALL 😂 A little bit later, Joey and Dempsey went on a run then played at the park and shoutout to my husband for not even asking if I wanted to join them because I probably would’ve said yes when I should’ve been resting instead. Read the latest 5280 and some of my current book while they were out and it felt real nice!

Sunday night festivities included hot chocolate, family and lots of lights at the Botanic Gardens. I actually think they have more decorations out for the Halloween event, but this was still pretty to look at and fun for us all to be together. Dempsey liked it! He wanted to touch all of the lights and absolutely chugged his hot chocolate 😂 It would’ve been nice to be able to zip my jacket up, but what can you do? We were in and out in just about an hour, so we still got home and got Demps to bed on time. Joey said it was perfect timing and I thought he meant because we’d still have time to watch The White Lotus but he was talking about watching the rest of the Cowboys game 😣 We did get to watch The White Lotus though. I’m really interested to see the finale next week but something about this season feels a little more hollow than the last one. Oh and we were driving ourselves insane all weekend trying to find the newborn inserts for my car seat and then we realized they’re non-removable and have just always been in my car seat 😂🤦‍♀️ Hope you had a good weekend!

I know people love Christmas and, totally, I get it! But have you guys heard of Thanksgiving?? It’s the meal and the family and the time off from work, but without having to buy any presents! Sounds pretty good to me 😋 Felt like we had a lot to be thankful for this year and we did our best to think about those things, even though this year has been one of such loss as well. I’m perhaps insane for offering to host Thanksgiving for 15 people at 36 weeks pregnant, but Joey handled all the cooking and most of the set up, so I was able to just sit back, watch the parade with Demps and hang out with our family 🥰 It was a really good weekend. We even got ALL our Christmas shopping done and watched three whole movies!

For us, Thanksgiving Eve is a thing and on Thanksgiving Eve, we eat ramen! We had it delivered and did some table set up while we waited for it to arrive. You don’t know the joy it brings my heart to see Dempsey eating his steamed bun and ramen with us. I dreamed of adding kids to this tradition for so long and my dream has come true 🤍 No pressure, but hopefully baby sis is a ramen lover too!

Taught Dempsey to say “gobble, gobble” then headed downstairs for breakfast and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Considered making us some slow scrambled eggs, toast and bacon and then I felt tired just thinking about it, so crockpot apple pie oats to the rescue. Just stirred it all up, put it in bowls, added some toppings and we were good to go! Joey had gotten up early to go on a run and then headed into the kitchen and I don’t think he ever left 😂 Meanwhile, Dempsey and I watched the parade and he kept saying he wanted the big turkey float down and to pop all the balloons 😂😂 I told Joey I thought I was my happiest self watching this parade with a cup of coffee every year, but nothing compares to cuddling on the couch with my toddler while watching it! He was particularly enraptured by The Rockettes and we had to rewind and watch their performance a second time. He had just enough time to see Santa’s arrival before he went down for his nap.

Table set, turkey ready (we did a dry brine with an heirloom turkey this year and I thought it turned out so so good!), Dempsey up and guests arrived, so it was time to eat! Everything tasted so good 🤤 Dempsey was loving the turkey and not much else, but I’ll still call it a win. Tried to get a family photo outside and Dempsey was so hellbent on being put down so he could plug in the inflatable turkey, so most of the pictures were maybe us laughing at him being upset, oops! My sis had on a new engagement ring that my mom and I didn’t notice for close to an hour 🤦‍♀️ We knew they had bought one but it was still so exciting to see in person and I could not be happier for she and Wayne! Managed to get a group photo this year and then someone was smart enough to get a photo of the boys in their Cowboys jerseys. My sis, Wayne and Lori were last to leave and they had our whole kitchen cleaned up by the time they left, so I’m super grateful for them! Just a really nice day 🤍

Found the energy to make that slow scramble, bacon and toast on Friday morning and then the rest of the day was very chill. It was warm enough to take a walk around the block and once outside, I realized it’d been too long since I’d been outside. I definitely kept up with walking all through my pregnancy with Dempsey but man, I am just tired and in pain this time around and it’s been much easier to NOT make it a priority to get in some fresh air and a little exercise. Getting in this small walk felt so good though! We also used Dempsey’s nap time to get ALL of our Christmas shopping done. It’s going to be a storm of deliveries for the next week or so but I am so glad to have it all done. No idea what we spent the rest of the day doing but we did start Weird: The Al Yankovic Story before I realized Joey and I were both dozing off 😂

Started Saturday at Sassafras and Dempsey was being very silly with his spoon. He also kept asking for bites of butter 😂 A little bit later, he and Joey left with the stroller for a run and I left a few minutes after and walked the world’s slowest walk to meet them at the park. It’s not so bad today, but I have been in such pelvic pain 😫 Rolling back and forth during the night has been hell and I have to sit down any time I put socks or shoes or pants on because standing on one leg is torture. As long as she’s good and ready, it’s totally fine with me if this baby wants to be born a week or two early 😋 Finished our movie during Dempsey’s nap and what hilarious absurdity! I learned literally nothing about Weird Al’s career but I laughed a lot. I’ve been making “hay boy” jokes ever since.

Once Dempsey was up, we swapped out our fall decor for our Christmas stuff, made a quick decision to order in Indian food (we tried a new place and it wasn’t as good as Spice Room but Dempsey ate three servings of butter chicken and the heartburn I had was just my normal daily heartburn and not extra hot heartburn, so it’s a win), ate said Indian food, then decorated the Christmas tree. Instagram had me convinced it was going to be a magical time of having my toddler help hang up ornaments then peacefully placing the star on top the tree but then it was mostly Joey and I hanging up ornaments while I tried to stop Dempsey from plugging and unplugging the lights on the tree then him not being able to get the star on the top because the branches were too thin and he didn’t like being up so high 😂😂😂 After his bedtime, we watched The Wonder and I thought it was super interesting. Florence Pugh forever, ya know?

How great is a four day weekend?? We had Sunday to fit in our usual pancake day and the chocolate chunks I used because we were out of chocolate chips were only borderline too much 😋 I almost let this weekend pass by without arranging for a trip to the movie theater but luckily my sis and Wayne were available to babysit on Sunday, so we grabbed tickets to The Fablemans. I thought it was really good! I didn’t know anything about Steven Spielberg’s early life, so I learned a lot, plus it’s just nice to watch an extremely well-crafted film by someone who really knows what they’re doing. Every shot was just so beautiful! Spent the evening watching Joey put up the Christmas village with Dempsey’s “help” then we finished up our Thanksgiving leftovers so I guess that’s a wrap on Thanksgiving 2022! Put Dempsey to bed and watched the newest episode of The White Lotus. I hope you got the balance of rest and productivity you needed this weekend. Happy Monday!