We had plans to spend the holiday with Ryan’s family and his mom and Les arrived on Wednesday morning and stayed through Saturday afternoon. We picked them up at the airport around 10 a.m. and spent most of Wednesday getting ready for Thanksgiving, hanging out around the house and digging into lasagna for dinner.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was a good one! We had a ton of food for only four adults and one toddler but that’s just the way I like it. Leftovers for daysss!
We also managed to make our way to the Davidson Cross Country Trail for a 3-mile mid-morning hike while the turkey roasted at home. The fresh air felt great and we had wonderful weather (upper 50s and sunny) for Diane and Les’ entire visit.
Friday
We wanted to take Diane and Les into the city on Friday and they seemed excited about visiting 7th Street Public Market, so we spent a little over an hour at Discovery Place Science before making the short walk over to the market for coffee and crepes.
(Moto Leggings: ROOLEE / Cardigan: Solutions Curved Hem via Nordstrom Rack)
Ryan was on a mission to get a real Christmas tree this year (we have a fake one set up in my office but he’s wanted a real one for years), so we also headed off on an adventure to find the perfect Christmas tree on Friday afternoon before making our way home around 2 p.m.
We drove to Birkdale Village in the evening to see the big Christmas tree, wander around the little shops and pick up some ice cream and that rounded our our Friday!
Saturday + Sunday
Saturday was Les and Diane’s last day with us and we enjoyed a lazy morning at home and a late breakfast before making our way to a small local zoo.
The morning went by in a flash and before we knew it, Chase and I were hugging Nona and Cow Papa goodbye before Ryan took them off to the airport and Chase went down for his nap. (In case you were wondering, Les’ grandkids call him “Cow Papa” because Les and Diane’s house backs onto a field with cows and they immediately associated their Papa with the cows they love to feed. Ya never know where grandparents’ names are going to come from!)
While Chase slept, I immediately changed into my pajamas and did a little Black Friday shopping on Saturday since most of the deals seemed to run through the weekend. While I cannot share what I bought as gifts for family and friends, I did throw a couple small purchases for myself in the mix, including this $22 tunic sweater from Nordstrom and a holiday candle from Anthropologie.
Saturday evening took us to church for the 5:30 p.m. service and we left with a few gift tags off the giving trees in the lobby.
Chase loved selecting a tag and even though I’m not sure he fully grasps the concept of a giving tree just yet, we’re trying to work with him on it and took him along on our big giving tree shopping adventure to Target on Sunday morning where we filled our cart with clothing and toys for the children on our tags.
We spent the rest of our Sunday walking Sadie, catching up on work during Chase’s nap and decorating our Christmas tree!
I really hope my American friends out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that all of you had a fantastic weekend. Enjoy your Monday!
Cyber Monday Sales
Just in case you missed some of the good deals over the weekend, there’s still time to sneak in a bit of holiday shopping and take advantage of Cyber Monday sales today. Below you will find a short roundup of some of the sales that caught my eye:
The Honest Company: Save 50% off first bundle order with code OHYEAH (I order their diapering bundles for Chase and LOVE them.)
GAP: 50% off everything with code CYBER
Old Navy: 40% off everything (Love this $24 cold shoulder swing dress for holiday parties.)
Kohl’s: Extra 20% off with code BUYNOW20 (Includes lots of Melissa & Doug toys
Juice Beauty: 20% off with code Cyber17 (An organic + natural beauty line with lots of great reviews! I ordered this concealer to try.)
ASOS: 30% off everything with code EPIC30
Nike: 25% off select styles with code EPIC25
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Happy Monday! I’m up annoyingly early today and my solace is that I’m up in time to comment before the day gets going! Looks like you had a great Thanksgiving weekend and I hope you share pics eventually of your real tree. (No pressure.) I’ve never had a real tree (that I can remember….) but I do think they’re very pretty and smell GREAT! <–said like Tony the Tiger.
And just a random aside, but wow is Ryan's mom beautiful! I've seen pictures of her before, of course, but it just popped into my head again while reading, and my rule is, "if you're thinking something positive, don't be afraid to share it." So there you go! Great pics of EVERYONE, of course.
Have a great start to the week!
agreed!! as i was typing up part of this post on the couch next to ryan yesterday, i specifically told him how pretty and photogenic his mom is! i don’t think i have one bad pic of her!
I don’t know if you ever watched “How I met Your Mother” but there is a running thing on that show where one of the characters (Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris) never ever takes a bad picture. His friends realize this while going through a photo album and seeing nothing but perfect pics of him, no matter what else is happening in the photo. So they start to try taking bad pics of him, and even if they take a photo while he’s eating or tripping, he still ends up looking fantastic in the photo – same pose, same suave look. lol Anyhow, your MIL is photogenic in the same way for sure! She’s got the magic!
Looks like a great holiday weekend! The cow papa thing is just too cute. I did some online shopping already this weekend, so trying to resist the cyber Monday deals lol.
It looks like a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend! Thank you for sharing the Cyber Monday deals, I’m looking forward to perusing Amazon.com, Kohl’s and Express!
What a great Thanksgiving weekend. We had my family visiting, we had so much fun, but I now feel exhausted. I need a break after break, lol.
i feel ya on that one! it’s all so fun at the time but i’m totally dragging today!
Sounds like a wonderful weekend Julie! This morning I was saying how long holiday weekends need another weekend for recovery lol!
Love that outfit! Those moto leggings are super cute! Do you find them true to size? I’m thinking about ordering a pair but I’m worried they will be too small since my legs are pretty muscular 😉
And thanks for linking to the Anthropologie candle! It will make a perfect gift!
Looks like you had a fabulous family holiday weekend!
they definitely have a tight fit but i have pretty wide hips and thicker thighs and i ordered a medium. i’m usually a medium in leggings and a 6/8 in jeans/pants. hope this helps!
Love the giraffe pictures and love that you’re teaching your little be a giving person! 🙂
What a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend! Chase is such a cutie! I love that you are teaching him all about the gift of giving! The giving tree is something I always love doing each year, which reminds me I still need to go pick some tags off of a tree! I hope you have a great week Julie, and I hope you can get some rest too!! Xoxo
Sounds like you guys had a great Thanksgiving with Ryan’s parents. I remember how much fun it was to have my grandparents visit for holidays as a kid.
I’d love to see photos of your Christmas tree once you have it decorated.
I’m with you on the Thanksgiving leftovers! We’re still going through some of our favorites and some new-to-us recipes like this maple, cranberry cornbread we tried. SO good. Christmas is such a magical time of the year. Those tree photos look so dreamy!
My brother’s grandson calls him Grandpa Rex because his dog’s name is Rex and he calls his other grandpa Grandpa Sophie because their dog’s name is Sophie. It’s so cute and my brother loves it!
I love Chase’s little cable knit sweater!! So sweet!
Ah the holidays are the best, aren’t they!?
What a fun weekend! I have to ask because I am clueless when it comes to shooting with a fancy camera–how did you get such great photos at the Christmas tree? I’ve tried with a friend’s DSLR and I am a total dummy when it comes to all those settings. Happy belated Thanksgiving!
Sooo I actually just used auto mode! I wish I had better tips for you but thankfully my camera pulled through for me with those pics! (I have a Canon EOS 6D.)
Chase’s giant smile in that top pic is beyond adorable. What a cutie!
Thank you!! I LOVE that pic! Planning to frame it for my mother-in-law for Christmas! <3