Thanksgiving 2025

With all of the dishes done, the table clean and cleared, and lots of pictures to sort through, I feel deep deep gratitude for this Thanksgiving. 

🧡 for my girls home

🧡 for my parents over

🧡 for my brothers

🧡 for the smell of turkey baking all afternoon 

🧡 for pies, and warmth, for the fireplace, and cozy pillows on the couch

🧡 for everything 

Here a few pictures of leading up to Thanksgiving and our day yesterday. 

Butter cookies with orange zest and cranberries

Creamy sweet potatoes 

Abigail came home from college 💕

Gingerbread cookies 

pies cooling 

icing cookies 

And the most fun of all... playing house 💕 I love setting the table and go slowly. I worked on it on and off all of November. 

pecan pie...yummmmm 

I bake homemade cinnamon rolls every Thanksgiving morning for us - it's such a fun tradition. I use the same dough I use for homemade rolls to keep it simple. 

Homemade buttery rolls cooling, coffee brewing for a pumpkin spice latte that warms in the crockpot all day long until dessert time. 

Mixing up the filling for apple pie

I made scrambled eggs to go with our cinnamon rolls. 

Icing them is the most fun of all! 

We ate breakfast in the family room with the Macy's parade on 

Apple pie out of the oven 

More pictures of our table setting 

oranges, gold spray painted pine cones, gold stars, and flowers... 

This picture makes me so happy! 

We had so many people that I set our kitchen table too. We had golds, oranges, and deep rich colors in our dining room, but reds and greens in our kitchen. 

All of the fun, silly family photos right before guests arrived. These make me smile. 

After dinner everyone headed down to our 'playroom' for some relax time and playing ping pong. 

Dessert time! 

Mom and Anna talking and watching Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

One last picture of my brothers and I 

Last night we stayed up late: Anna, Abigail, Scott and I washed every single dish, pan, napkin. I scrubbed the counters, washed the floors, turned off the lights, and then we all went up to bed, so so tired. I passed by the dining room on the way upstairs and felt a mixture of gratitude and sadness that it was over. 

Praise God from whom all blessing flow... 

Late November Weekending

Starting

Yes, the Thanksgiving prep has started and I love all of those ingredients out and how they fill up our kitchen after shopping for them  

Two pie crusts ready to go: one for apple pie and one for pecan pie 

Enjoying 

Comfort food before a week of comfort food 

Noticing 

I love rooms. I love separate rooms divided by walls. I love how our family room isn't in one part of a big room. I know 'great rooms' are loved by many but oh how I love all different rooms. I honestly wouldn't know how to decorate if I didn't have all of these smaller rooms. 

Sunday ~ing 

8:00 am Mass (not pictured) We've been going to 8 am for a few years now and would never turn back. Getting up, dressed up, and staring the day with church feels so good. Then Scott and I have a cup of tea when we get home. 

Sunday was a full day for sure! Scott did the leaves for hours and I made cookie dough, two kinds: gingerbread and butter cookies. 

I'll be rolling the dough tomorrow after school. Yes, we still have 3 days of school but I'm planned and ready. 

Wishing you all a lovely week of Thanksgiving. 

Scenes Right Now

That sunlight hitting the house this way only in November. It's delightful to me. 

Bags of leaves from the yard just starting. 

Planting a hundred bulbs to make April glorious

Pinecones from a hike in the forest spray painted gold for the holidays around our home

A Christmas tree in the dining room, pumpkins on the table, just playing house and preparing for Thanksgiving 

 

First Snow

This sweet little blog of mine that started all those years ago with little little girls - I love this space and I proud of all of the memory keeping I've done here. All of the thoughts, all of the events, all of the holidays. It's so wonderful to have it all recorded. 

And I haven't been on here in so long it seems. I've just got to catch up. What have I been up to? 

~ November as a teacher means writing report cards, cross checking data, making sure I've got it all right

~ November means preparing for parent/teacher conferences next week

~ November also means decorating for the holidays. I like to be all done before Thanksgiving (except for our real tree) so that I can really enjoy December instead of it flying by. It helps me to have that time of decorating freed up so that I can have a fruitful Advent. 

SoooOooooo life has been full but I certainly don't want to neglect all that is going on. I have so much goodness to capture and remember here. 

I think I'll start simple with just one picture and then keep going each day as much as I can. 

Abigail texted us a few videos this week and this picture: 

It was the first snow even though there wasn't a flake of snow here, where she was, the magic filled the sky and I'm so glad she included us in the joy. 

Abigail update: In case you missed it, Abigail is in college. She is over-the-moon happy with her college choice (and her mama and daddy are too). She is rocking her first semester classes, has met some really special friends, and is very involved in Grace Notes (she plays the viola at Mass), and Catholic Campus Ministry. She often goes to a mid-week nighttime candlelit Mass, Confession, and Adoration. She will be majoring in Social Work and minoring in Catholicism. Right now her hardest class is Catholicism and her 'easiest' class is Philosophy. Her dorm room is adorable we love to visit and take her out for lunch when we can. Miss you Abigail and see you for Thanksgiving!  

Early November Weekending

I love this time of year. At first I always feel a bit sad that mid/late October is over. It's glorious living in New England with all of the leaves, that first crisp of cooler air. And I just don't want it to end, ever. Sometimes I almost feel panicked. Should we go to a park? Have a picnic outside? Go for another drive to see the leaves? 

But then it ends on Halloween night and November starts and I think, ahhh. I can take a breath from all of the beauty I try to pack into October and breath easy. 

November feels simple. And slow. And actually lovely. 

{side note: November does happen to be one of my busiest months teaching - there are report cards to write and conferences coming but even still I just love this month} 

November for us is sloooooowly decorating. Usually I do one little part of our home a night starting early in November. This week I completed two fireplace mantles. And that's it. I don't bring up any Christmas bins or totes. Just went in to grab what I wanted to play with and that was it. Tomorrow I think I'll decorate my teapot shelf in the kitchen. Bit by bit is how I like it to go. So I take my time all November long. 

It truly is a glorious lovely month. 

Here are some pictures from this past weekend:

Halloweening

I came home to the coziest house on Halloween afternoon after being with nine year olds all day long. We had what we always do: Tricker Treater Taco Soup. 

And then Anna and I gave out hot cider to the parents and candy to the kids. We had so much fun out there. It was windy and cold! Perfect Halloween weather! 

Random picture that I love. I do adore my kitchen not all perfect - messy from good food! 

Baking 

I wanted to make a trial apple pie because Thanksgiving is coming! I tried a new fat in my homemade crust {Abigail has lots of allergies and butter is out for us} 

Shining 

I decided to shine some things up in our home before I start decorating. First off: take all of my antique baskets outside, give them a good hose off, then use a paint brush to brush on Murphy's Oil Soap and rinse off again. Then I let them dry off in the grass with plenty of sunshine.  Oh they are ready for Christmas now! 

Noticing

As I was ironing out our bedroom window. The last of the fall leaves.