We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. A bit different from normal, but it’s been that kind of year. Normally, we have an early Thanksgiving with my mom’s extended family, but that got canceled due to health issues of the hosts this year. Any other year, I would have offered to host instead. But of course, we’re in the process of moving, and our house is half packed away! Instead, my sisters and I planned to meet up with my mom the day before Thanksgiving. Then one of my sisters and two of her kids all got strep, and couldn’t make the trip down. It ended up being a small party indeed, but we all got tamales and that was nice. Thanksgiving itself was at my aunt and uncle’s house as usual, where we all ate and watched football and played pool etc etc. We came home fat and happy afterwards.

In my family, it’s traditional to begin the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving. On that day, we all stay home and decorate the house while listening to Christmas music. Every once in awhile, we go out in the afternoon (once Black Friday Insanity has died down) and see if we can get a good deal on something, but this is rare and only when something specific we need/want is on a great sale. Mostly, it’s just a day to kick off the holiday spirit.

This year – totally different. Obviously, we couldn’t put up Christmas decorations, since we’re supposed to move this week. Morrigan spent the night with a friend who was in town from college, and Ambrose spent the day/night with a group of friends in a post-Thanksgiving celebration. Jason and I did chores and ran errands and generally tried to prep for the upcoming move. It was not in the least bit traditional and admittedly a bit sad.

Goal: When we move into the new house this week, one of the first things we’ll unpack is the Christmas tree and decorations. It’s unlikely we’ll get outside lights up this year, but that’s okay, as long as the inside looks as festive as possible. And I told Jason – normally we take down the decorations on New Year’s Day, but today we need to keep them up just a bit longer to compensate for our lost time. Heh. The boys just want to make sure that we still make our traditional sugar cookies this year. Of course!!!

How did the holiday week go for all of you? Also, do you like my new “literary cats” mug? I saw it at Half Price Books this week and couldn’t resist!!!