Hannukah came very early this year starting the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Sticking with tradition, we celebrated the first night at my parents with brisket and latkes. We said the blessing and lit the menorah each night, followed by presents daily, usually clothes and other practical gifts.
We spent one Friday celebrating the sixth night with our neighbors, The Goldmans and The Rackisanys, eating great food, experiencing the Hannukah traditions, and enjoying each others company.
This year Harper was brave enough to light the menorah a couple of the nights! And in our new kitchen!
We spent the day with my parents. A little morning walk followed by a little Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade watching and a lot of Thanksgiving skit planning.
We arrived at my parents around 2:00 and enjoyed charcuterie appetizers along with bacon wrapped goat cheese dates and brown sugar wrapped chicken bites. All delicious. Needing to digest, we watched the annual dog show and went for a leisurely walk in the neighborhood enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.
post App, pre Dinner nap
Dinner consisted of a spiral ham, turkey, my mom’s amazing stuffing, and more! Dessert featured two pies…one blackberry and one apple.
My favorite part of the day was most definitely the girls skit. The girls first put together a skit with Lari’s help three years ago and have continued the tradition even without her. Harper was still the turkey struggling to fit into the paper bag without ripping it. Emerson was the narrator graciously introducing Avery, who was the star of the show with her beautiful dance moves autobiography of her life especially as it related to her nystagmus. The three days that the girls spent planning for the skit at home were equally as great; seeing them creatively work together truly makes me so happy.
Since 2015, we have been taking family pictures every other year. This year was our 3rd time in the row having Allison Kuykendall take our pictures. We chose Leesburg, VA as our location and we settled on October 30 as mid-November was just too cold for outdoor pictures the last session two years prior.
Selecting our family outfits always takes me weeks to do; buying and then returning lots of clothes and shoes. I loved all their outfits this year…really felt like they grew up in their jeans, vans, and Dr. Martins.
Weather could not have been better for end of October. We topped off the pictures with a delicious dinner at Tuscaora Mill.
Girls’ cooperation was great. Their love for one another, which I often question at home, is so evident in these pictures.
The girls were thrilled to be at home this year for Halloween. Harper and Avery appreciated and furthermore liked my attempts for the Halloween scavenger hunt last year in Asheville for Halloween. While Emerson appreciated the gesture, it didn’t make up from her missing out on the neighborhood activities.
This year we arranged for families to gather in our cul-de-sac at 5:00. So many families wanted to gather—we ordered 26 pizzas and all were accounted for!
The kid group pictures shows just how many elementary and pre-school age students we have in the neighborhood…CRAZY. And there were probably a few more missing,
Here are the 5th grade girls….
And Harper and Zara….
The girls were on a mission to see how much candy they could get. Many families left candy on tables so their whole families could trick or treat together or hang out with the adults. The kids liked the ability to take more than a few or select their own candy and not having to walk up the long driveways of some of the houses was an added bonus.
I walked with the girls and as usual always enjoy the extra exercise on Halloween night!
The girls had a great time trick-or-treating. The sugar rush Sunday and Monday and Tuesday was real with little monitoring of how much was being eaten. Tuesday evening we gathered up the candy and put it away for future enjoyment.
