This past holiday weekend was just so, so good. Sammy and I got to spend a lot of time together, we saw our families, and Henry was relatively calm (could we possibly be moving a tiny bit out of the puppy phase?!) every day.
We did many festive things and even fit in another venue tour (of which, I'm super excited about).
But back to last week...
We were able to leave work early on Wednesday afternoon, which was a nice treat! When I got home, I snapped a few photos of our "Thanksgiving decor" while it was up because I knew come Friday it would all come down to make room for the best decor of all ;)
Sammy went out with his friends for Black Wednesday, and Henry and I were very content to stay home and watch Jeopardy before calling it an early night.
I got up early on Thanksgiving morning and watched An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving because it seemed like something that would be right up this nerd's alley. And it was. And because I knew Sammy would never want to watch it with me ;)
But he was keen on making us pancakes to eat while we watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Only the greatest Thanksgiving film ever created. And I think we found ourselves a new tradition.
We spent the morning in our pajamas, lounging around.
And then I made Henry take several staged photos "for Thanksgiving."
Before I started getting ready for dinner, and after Sammy went to work, Henry and I went on a walk. While we were walking I was thinking of how different this Thanksgiving day was for me. I've never spent one minute of Thanksgiving by myself or home alone, so it was kind of weird, but also nice, to have such a leisure day.
I got on the train later that night and headed over to my grandma's. She lives real close to the train station, so I took the opportunity to walk through their downtown and see some of the lights they put up.
Forever love men in the kitchen ;)
My dad always comes to my grandma's for dessert, and it's forever a reminder how blessed we are to have parents who (now) get along post divorce.
All bets were off Friday morning when it went from fall to CHRISTMAS real quick in our house. Sammy had to work later that day/night, so we got up early in the morning to get our Christmas tree :)
Someone HAD to roll in all the mud. I think next year we'll go to the church down the street and get our tree from their lot haha.
Very impressed with himself haha.
We got home and I laid out all the Christmas decorations we've collected so far while Sammy put the tree in our stand.
And this guy watched over everything.
We decorated the entire house, except for our trees. Sammy had to go to work so I figured the real tree could use a day to relax and sit in some water before decorating (which we did Saturday). I'm hoping to do a separate post showing our outside and inside decor.
I proceeded to eat leftovers and watch Home Alone. I've watched it several times already, so get ready for many references. And yes, that's a Home Alone picture book. It's a lifestyle.
More snacks, of course, and Hallmark movies for the rest of the day.
My mom came over later that night for pizza and to go to the tree lighting ceremony/parade downtown CL. We met Tina and Brad who were there with Tina's family, and it was fun to be together for the little parade.
I felt like I was in a Hallmark movie during the tree lighting. There were so many people there and everyone cheered when the lights when on the tree--I almost cried haha. Such a sucker for this community.
Saturday morning we got up early again to head up to Lake Geneva to see another venue. They had champagne waiting for us, so I was sold. Where do I sign?
We toured Geneva National and I'm officially obsessed.
There were a bunch of indoor spaces in addition to the ballroom we could use for whatever we want (extra cocktail hour space, place cards, favors, dessert later, etc.) and a gorgeous outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour space.
Doesn't look like much here haha, but the balcony is so pretty off the ballroom/indoor space. I've seen gorgeous photos of people using draping and string lights to make this space look so romantic.
The only slight downside is while the ballroom is pretty, it isn't totally our style. So we'd have to make a few changes decor wise to make it a little prettier, but if those windows aren't redeeming, I don't know what is.
Hopefully it can look something like this, a little more airy is all we want.
We came home and decorated our tree downstairs as well as our tree in loft upstairs.
Later on, we got ready to go to a second Thanksgiving at Sammy's aunt's house.
Sammy had to work Thanksgiving, so I know he was thrilled to have an opportunity to celebrate with part of his family Saturday night.
Where we played with lots of animals and did lots of airplanes.
When we got home, part of Sammy's groomsmen proposals had delivered. He got all his guys monogrammed yeti koozies. He's going to put their favorite beer in each one and I'm attempting to make "will you be my groomsman?" tags to hang from the neck of each beer. I think they turned out awesome.
And then Henry spent the rest of the night burning off alllllll his energy while we tried to watch The Grinch ;)
Sunday we laid around lazily which is my favorite thing on earth.
Sammy had to work again, so Henry and I had the house to ourselves which meant cozy food (aka pastina) and Hallmark movies.
But he did stop home for a visit halfway through his shift :)
I had groceries delivered because why leave the house?
We played in the snow before it started to really come down hard.
Did more napping #blessed
And proceeded to only go outside in short bursts because the wind had picked up to 25 mph and it was snowingggg. Which meant... I got to work from home on Monday because we ended up with way more snow than we thought.
Lived my absolute best on Monday. It was so nice to be able to stay home. Forever grateful for a company who is as flexible as they are awesome.
It was a really great weekend, and I'm looking forward to a good coming up! I have no plans tonight or Sunday #blessedtobealone, but I'm meeting Sammy's mom and SIL for a nails appointment and lunch tomorrow, and then my mom and I have plans to go to a craft show in the afternoon. Love getting to spend time with some of my favorite women.
Have a wonderful weekend all!
