Speckles of Echols: November 28th - December 10th. Thanksgiving festivities, Advent calendar, and of course

Here I am, 2 months behind! Haha.. Its like journaing - if you get too far behind, you feel like you have to play catch up and it seems so overwhelming. That's where I'm at. But, I am going to chip away at this, at a rapid pace. So, lots of pictures, and not a lot of words.

November 28. We were not able to have the Thanksgiving feast that was originally planned with friends (thanks covid), and I did not want to spend that day baking, so we had our feast on the following Saturday with one other family. We had a cornhole set, and the kids played and watched Christmas movies. The adults got to enjoy a campfire outside after all the clean up was done. It was lovely!

The boys really enjoy helping me in the kitchen, so between the pies, rolls, casseroles, turkey, cranberry sauce, and everything else, we had lots of family kitchen time.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took, and it was after everything.

November 29. We needed more rolls to go with the leftovers, so Blake got to join in the crescent rolling fun.

November 30. Milo and Toby are now our regular dish washers after dinner each night. They rarely complain and they really are doing such a good job! I never thought I'd get to sit at the table after the meal was over, and just enjoy not doing anything for a bit. I love these boys. 💖

December 1. The neighborhood loves our lights! We are happy to share some Christmas cheer.

December 2.

We have this pretty advent house that we got last year. Each year, Blake and I come up with activities - sometimes service, or movies, or baking, or adventures - for each day of the month leading up to the 25th. Then, Blake writes each activity on the a tiny card that he rolls up and ties with a ribbon, and places in its assigned space. Then, every day until Christmas, we open one of the scrolls as a family to find out what our advent activity is for the day. This was so fun this year, and the boys looked forward every day to opening a new scroll.

The advent activity for this day was letters to Santa with the magical mailbox. This was a hit!

Watch a video to see the magic mailbox in action here ⬇️

https://youtu.be/tzQpLCNBupw

December 4. Advent activty : Christmas Jammies and family game night. I like to give them pajamas well ahead of Christmas so they can wear them throughout the month.

These were last year's jammies. I love that he wears them. 😁💓

December 7. I found the perfect sourdough sandwich bread recipe! I've adjusted it to half whole wheat, half white, and the boys all like this recipe.

December 8. One of our advent activities was picking out Christmas decorations. The boys picked out some cute ones.

Another advent calendar activity: Christmas shopping for each other! We went to Daiso and let them each pick out a gift for their brothers, and then we wrapped them at home afterward. This is one of their favorite activities.

Toby loves puzzles.

December 10. Glass Beach with the autumn colors is my favorite! I love exploring out here with my little guys. At low tide, there are some fun little tide pools with hermit crabs and anemones.