Things I’m Loving Friday #493

Happy first day of December from our Elf on the Shelf!

Fisbee is back and the boys are psyched! Honestly, I think I like this crazy elf tradition as much as the boys for the first week or two and then Ryan and I inevitably forget to move him after bedtime and panic in the morning as the boys emerge from their room and one of us chucks him into the Christmas tree and crosses our fingers that the boys don’t see us in action. Ooooh Christmas traditions.

Another Christmastime tradition? We’re heading to Great Wolf Lodge with the boys this weekend!

When I say the boys are next-level obsessed with Great Wolf Lodge I mean it (we tried to book it for Ryder’s birthday but it was totally full in June) and the holiday season is such a fun time of year to visit. It’s all decked out in holiday decor and even “snows” in the lobby! We’ll be wearing Christmas pajamas and swimsuits all weekend and plan to spend our time in the indoor waterpark and conquering various MagiQuests as we sprint all over the lodge. (Chase is 100 percent obsessed with MagiQuest.) I still need to pack up our bags for the weekend and meet up with our neighbor who is helping watch Pepper but then we’re off!

I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy this week’s roundup of favorites, Things I’m Loving Friday style!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Quarter Crew Socks

At long last, I found the crew socks of my dreams! I love the look of crew socks over leggings but have struggled to find a pair of socks that hit at a flattering spot on my leg. Most hit at the bottom of my calf and cankled me (unacceptable) or felt too thick and made my feet excessively sweat during workouts (also unacceptable). And then these beauties entered my life!

They’re cushioned enough to prevent awkward rubbing and blisters in sneakers but hit at a slim part of the leg to eliminate tree trunk legs. I love the three colors that came in the pack I ordered (white, gray and a super-subtle pink) and am all-in on this retro look!

• Holiday Card Album

I cannot remember if I gave this holiday card album to Ryan for Christmas last year or the year before but regardless it’s been such a fun gift to break out of our Christmas storage bin. Our whole family had fun flipping through the album and looking at our past cards and the boys especially enjoyed seeing pictures of themselves as babies and remembering Sadie and her silly antics. I just wanted to share this here in case you’re looking for a more personal gift for a loved one in your life that they will enjoy for years to come! I can only imagine how treasured this would be by grandparents if there was a way to roundup family cards from decades ago! I hope this album will be something our family and our boys will enjoy for years and years to come! (Note: If you don’t love this specific album, there are tons of alternate designs on Etsy!)

• Color-Your-Own Cardboard Playhouse

This cardboard playhouse was the hit of Thanksgiving for our crew! I picked it up thinking it would be a fun activity for the kids since we were hosting a big gang over the holiday but, at one point, I think almost every adult in our family got involved in coloring the playhouse, too.

Ryan put it all together for the kids once we were done decorating the outside of the gingerbread house and the boys have been playing in it every single day, turning it into a dog house, Santa’s workshop, a car garage and more. I bought the playhouse at Target but it looks like it’s sold out (I think they do regular restocks?). There are also a bunch of cardboard playhouse designs on Amazon (this holiday house looks like ours) and I cannot recommend this activity enough, especially if you’re hosting a gang of little ones over the holidays!

• The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

My rating: B+

This book was my latest audiobook “read” thanks to my mom’s recommendation. She’s the queen of recommending a good mystery novel and this one was all kinds of twisty and intriguing. While I anticipated the major twist (I think once you’ve read a lot of mysteries, twists are easier to see coming), I still enjoyed the book and the way all of the pieces fell into place.  (Note: I had a friend tell me this novel is nearly identical to The Last Mrs. Parrish but I haven’t read that one so I cannot compare the two.) It was the perfect entertaining audiobook to listen to while multitasking as it roped me in immediately and held my interest. While I think the characters lacked some depth and I didn’t find myself overly invested in any of them, the book was a solid background listen and an audiobook I’d recommend to anyone who typically likes twisty mysteries.

From Amazon: 

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…

• Friday Flashbacks

Gingerbread Oatmeal (So fragrant, so festive and so tasty!)

Winning Cornbread Recipe (Because soup, stew and chili season is in full swing and this is the perfect side!)

Question of the Day

What is one thing making you smile this week?