Slices of Life

 I'm getting pretty excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow!  I have all the food prepped and ready to go.  I was going to share my Thanksgiving favorites but really that's mostly just our menu sine I cook and mainly just cook my favorites.  We keep it real simple in our family and don't have the dozens or so dishes that everyone else seems to prepare.  I saw this cute little This or That Thanksgiving Edition and thought it would make a perfect blog post for today.  As always I started with the original...  And here's one with my answers.  I honestly don't know anyone that makes ham for Thanksgiving... ham tends to be either a Christmas or an Easter thing up here (though I do see ham in the stores so I know people must have them).  We have always made a turkey in our family and just a turkey with lots of side dishes (that may or may not change through the years).  We really eat around 2 so between lunch and dinner but we treat it as a late lunch. We tend to eat a later br

 Thanksgiving night our thoughts turn to Christmas.  We begin by watching Elf and then spend the entire day after Thanksgiving decorating the house.  I try not to plan too much for us to do during December as I like to really enjoy the season with the boys. With that in mind there are things that get put on my bucket list each year. 1.  Finish up and mail out my Christmas cards 2. Get all gifts bought, wrapped, and under the tree by mid- December. 3. Decorate the house; including the basement this year! 4.Watch ALL my holiday favorite movies!  (I'll have a whole post listing all of my favorite holiday movies up on the blog soon!) 5. Read lots of Christmas themed books. 6. Have a family dinner in front of the fire while watching a movie. 7. Enjoy a cup of hot cocoa. 8. Bake up some yummy treats. 9. Drive around and see some Christmas lights. 10. Get together with my family for Christmas Eve 11.  Host Christmas brunch 12. Donate food and toys to local drives.  Linking up with:

 I know fall doesn't officially end until December 21st but each year around this time it starts to FEEL more like winter and I like to put together a Holiday bucket list to make sure we most of each day during this busy season.   With that in mind today is the perfect time to look back on our fall bucket list and see how we did.   1. Enjoy a weekend trip for Ben's birthday--  Check!  We had a fabulous time in Maine 2. Go apple picking- Nope! No one would go with me and picking apples by yourself just didn't sound fun.  We did stop by the orchard weekly for fresh apples, cider, and donuts (on occasion!) 3. Make apple pie, caramel apples,  or enjoy some apple treats like cider donuts -- Check!  We made 3 apple pies (2 frozen for Thanksgiving & Christmas), caramel apples, and a cider donut cake. 4. Take a few "new" hikes-- Double check!! We went on sooo many fall hikes this year.  5. Watch the leaves change colors -- Check! We're so lucky that we have so