We took a drive to look at Christmas lights. There was an impressive show nearby:

I love Mia’s commentary. She didn’t believe me when I told her the music would match up to the lights!

Our Elf on the Shelf finally arrived! The kids named him Jingle. He was sneaking around the wine yesterday,

and ended up hanging from the chandelier this morning.

I have a feeling he is going to get into a lot of trouble.

My own countdown completely freaked me out. How can Christmas be 15 days away? Last night, I realized that we were not ready. Not a single present was wrapped. We didn’t have our family photo, much less printed cards.

We started by putting on It’s a Wonderful Life. We located all of the wrapping paper, and worked until midnight. Alright, catching up.

Today was our family photo shoot. We have to do a lot of takes to get a decent photo of everyone.

(Don’t miss :27!)

We did it! The cards are printing as I type. I’m feeling festive (and productive) now!

My doctor said I should have been feeling 80% better after five days. Instead, I am about 50% better on day seven. He ordered another shot and sent me home. I have another follow-up on Monday.

I managed to get out to Panera. Their hot chocolate is absolute bliss. Micah replicated it for me:

Yes, I have the best husband ever. He has been taking care of everything for me. I owe him a million times over, but he’s never sick!

Will also tried to make me feel better. He sang this to me today:

It was so cute. He’s been doing a bit better since we took him out of preschool. It had become very stressful for us because he was disruptive. He was evaluated by a school psychologist at our home yesterday… while our new dishwasher was being installed. Sheer chaos.

I must point out that my parents came to my rescue with that one. They bought a replacement and scheduled the installation, all while my Dad was on a lunch break. I had no idea! It was a huge burden off our shoulders with everything else that was going on.

I am on the go again. I can run errands, even though I look like an old lady and sound like I should be wheeling an oxygen tank beside me. I still can’t wait to pile everyone into the car and drive around to look at Christmas lights. I think we’ll do that tomorrow night. There is a house in our town that starts getting decorated in August. It should be impressive! I think we’ll bring hot chocolate.

I have a strange Thanksgiving tradition.

When I was six years old, I begged my Mom for a box of donuts and hot chocolate at the grocery store. The next morning (Thanksgiving), I had them for breakfast while sitting in front of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I enjoyed it so much that I did the same thing the following year. One year turned into 25. It has sort of evolved over the years, right down to the mug and a church craft fair phenomenon known simply as a mug rug.

Just writing this up makes me realize this is really ridiculous, but it’s one of the few old traditions that I still care to continue. For some reason, Micah also thinks it’s great. He’s been sitting beside me for the last 13 Thanksgiving mornings, ready to toast with his giant penguin mug.

Turkey cooking was a success. I have tweaked my turkey rub recipe to perfection. I was proud.

Dinner was… how can I put it? Humble. No Food-Channel-fueled cooking marathons are necessary in the days leading up to this.

Barney loved the leftovers. William waited patiently for dessert while we finished brewing coffee.

When we were finally done cleaning dishes, it was time to decorate the tree.

It was a nice end to a very peaceful day.

Lily slept in her bed last night! She loved it. Here she is, pretty much lost in there, chugging a bottle:

I will stop giving her bottles at night. I swear.

We headed out early this morning to go to the craft fair. I cooked a huge breakfast when we got home; So huge, in fact, that we decided it was brunch.

When we were done, we headed outside to work on the Christmas lights. That’s normally an all-day project by itself, but I kept going. We finished all of the indoor decorations, including the little trees in each bedroom (the kids have their own).

Barney doesn’t know what to make of it all.

Now, we’re all some of us are ready for the holiday season.

A dusting of snow outside,

and a little Christmas warmth inside.