My Crazy Holidays

Halloween has come to an end and that makes it official. It's November and the holidays are coming fast. Personally, I love this time of year. I love the cooler weather in Georgia, shopping for family and friends, and of course food.

November

The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is typically a big to-do at our house. The boys get outside and fry turkeys for Thanksgiving. By boys, I mean my husband, his father, my dad, my biological father, and lots of friends from church and work. Did you catch that crowd? Maybe I failed to mention that I have a very diverse, but functional, family. Lots of finger food in the house and tenderloin on the grill while all of these festivities are going on. It's usually cold, so the girls just hang out and chat inside. We figure, since the oil is hot and we're frying anyway, just come on over and fry yours too.

Thanksgiving Day is at my house and we usually eat (the first time) at about 1 pm. We usually have quite the crowd including my husband and I, our two kids, his parents, his sister, her boyfriend, their daughter, my parents, my sister (plus fiancé this year), my biological dad and his wife, my brother, his girlfriend, and my grandparents. So, in order to feed all of these people we usually have two ten pound turkeys, one twenty pound ham, dressing, turnip greens, vegan dressing, cranberry sauce, vegan black eyed peas, vegan rice, vegan green bean casserole, vegan sweet potato casserole, broccoli and cheese casserole, vegan green beans, vegan mashed potatoes, vegan rolls, pecan pie, vegan apple pie, peanut butter pie, and vegan chocolate chip cookies. I might even be leaving a few things out. Fun and fellowship all around, then we lie around and search through the sales papers. Some of us even venture out to K-Mart because they are always open on Thanksgiving Day. Usually about seven that evening we all head to the kitchen to eat again before everyone finally heads home.

The next day is devoted to decorating for Christmas! Shopping might come very early that morning to catch the Black Friday specials, but only if I know exactly what I am going to get.
December

The first thing that we have to celebrate in December is my daughter's birthday, which falls on December 11^th. I do not want her to feel like her birthday is too close to Christmas and we try to keep that special. The weekends are usually booked up fast in December between Christmas parades, Christmas parties, and church activities.

The weekend before Christmas has typically been devoted to my maternal grandparents. We usually get together with them and all of the adults draw names, but everyone buys for the kids. We usually eat finger foods here and it's pretty casual.

On Christmas Eve, I usually put a crock pot of chili on to cook for dinner because we head to Christmas Eve Service at church and my daughter usually sings. After this my parents and sister come over for us to eat Vegan chili together and have our Christmas.

Christmas Day is so exciting when you have children and I love it. We usually stay home that morning and let the children have their time to open presents and play. That afternoon we go to my husband's parents and eat dinner with them and open presents. I'm not sure if we started a new tradition this last year, but my biological father and his wife (who are friends with my in-laws) were there for Christmas and ate dinner with us and we all opened presents together. My vote is to all draw names if we do this again!

All in all, we have some good times and I love this time of year.