We pretty much jumped over this holiday and went from Halloween to Christmas, even putting up decorations a week before Thanksgiving. I was also fully prepared to order pizza and ignore it completely, but in the end we decided to create our own small celebration. It was certainly more simple than anything we’ve experienced in the past - we didn’t even cook a turkey!
I know that’s against Thanksgiving, but it worked for us. Since it was just the four of us, and I was pretty sure the toddlers wouldn’t eat much, we went for simple. We did a turkey stuffing meatloaf instead, along with instant potatoes, butternut squash (frozen, not fresh) and cranberry sauce from a can. Where we did go overboard was dessert - we made both pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake.
And honestly? It felt pretty special. We ate together at the table, and I pulled out “fancy” plates - meaning they weren’t plastic, and G insisted on getting a “big fork!” They were both super excited, and E told us many times that we were having a party!
G ate a lot, and E ate mostly desserts, but it was yummy and felt festive. Of course we wish we were with family instead, doing our normal traditions, but this actually felt okay. Of all the things we’ve missed out on with Covid, this wasn’t the worst.
We also took advantage of the day off and wore our matching Christmas PJs and even watched a movie! It’s a pretty big thing for us since our kids don’t watch TV or movies really. We chose Frosty the Snowman since it’s short and about at the level E’s interested in. G didn’t make it more than five minutes, but E really liked it!
The fall holiday season is moving right along.
As much as I’d love to hit pause, it’s not going to happen, so let’s just jump right in.
As always, I tried to make Thanksgiving as low key as possible. I had bought some pies and a pumpkin roll from a fund raiser at the elementary school, and figured that would be good enough for Thanksgiving, and then was told that we NEEDED a pumpkin pie. Which is fine, I love pumpkin pies too, so the kids made one on the Wednesday they were out of school. Turns out F is really into baking and loved the whole process. And everyone loved the pie.