November ‘23

Dec 1

How have we already made it to December?!

November - honestly, i don’t remember much of it lol

We did get our countertops put in! That was a headache and exciting at the same time :)

We also started to slowly decorate for Christmas about halfway through the month. We put up our outdoor lights and our tree :)

We are 1000% a real tree fam, but this year we’re actually installing flooring the weekend before Christmas since Jake’s brother will be in town, so we opted for a fake one for ease of transporting back and forth between rooms - but i already have fun traditional plans for next year when it comes to our tree! I found a really cool tree farm within an hour from us and they do fun festivals, have hot chocolate, shops, and all the other greenery you’d be looking for & i just think it’ll be so special to support local farmers while also cutting down our own tree! We never did that growing up and i think that will be so much fun!

let’s see, what else…

We celebrated a few family birthdays, spent time with my family often, had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and just really started to prep for ways to bring Advent into our home throughout December! I’ve been feeling really convicted these days about Holidays and how we celebrate them, and Christmas is one that i really want to jam-pack full of ways to honor and celebrate Jesus & the reason we celebrate the season altogether. I love watching all the nostalgic things and participating in the fun holiday activities, so this year is really finding a way to create balance between the two, but making sure the real focus is outward and not about consumption or false character narratives.

i’m going to write a blog about Christmas i think - How we celebrate, what we incorporate, How we approach Santa, and do gifts because i think as each year passes I find new inspiration on how i’d like to create our own family dynamic and traditions even if it looks and feels different than the mainstream way of doing things. Let me know if you’d be interested in something like that!

Another thing I did this November, was stay off of social media the weekend of Black Friday. I had lists of things we wanted to grab from sales going on for family, but didn’t allow myself to be overconsumed by every brand and every influencer i followed celebrating the sales and promoting them. I understand why they do it and it’s nothing against them, i just know how easily i find myself discontent during times like these and I wanted to be an adult and tell myself “no” altogether.