I tricked myself into thinking this was a long weekend for me because my workday on Friday was shorter and it felt like a Saturday in the office to catch up. It worked, because it’s Sunday and I feel like I just finished a nice long weekend. 
I also realized this weekend that I have so many photos to organize from the last year and things I want to document – then I remembered that it’s why I started this blog. So here we are, a good old fashioned weekend photo dump.
Wednesday evening, we walked to run some errands in the neighborhood and got some apps. We came home and pulled out our decorations. We don’t have much from our small apartment, but we got a few outdoor strings of lights and we are ready for the holiday season.

Thanksgiving was pretty low key for us. My dad’s family is giant, but now that us kids are grown up, there are less people that come for the holidays. People are adding new generations to their families and splitting off. This year was just my dad, my husband, my aunt and a few uncles. It was nice to watch the football game, get all the food ready and eat in a room with little chaos. We had an amazing meal and I was able to actually contribute this year.

And I bought these leftover containers from Target and it made me smile huge the next day at work knowing I had a big helping of stuffing and Brussels sprouts to get me through the day.

I enjoyed this heaping bowl of leftovers while finally getting caught up on emails. I have felt behind for months and one holiday weekend where no one is in the office and I was a clean up machine.

The weather was insanely warm out this weekend for end of November in Minnesota, so we took advantage and tried to walk every day. Instead of driving to the grocery store for some last minute holiday needs, we walked and took in all the awesome Christmas lights on our street. This tree was so impressive to us because the lights went all the way to the top and seemed so organized. You don’t really appreciate this stuff until you try it yourselves.

Not pictured from this weekend (but I have a second picture of the tree) was an awesome dinner date with our godson and his parents. Finn is 6 months old and he met Lola for the first time – I think they are going to be great friends. Also, we got to hang out with another group of college friends and meet their newborn and their toddler – there were some legos for the toddler and some beers for us. Great little afternoon.

Thanksgiving weekend usually brings many high school reunions and those aren’t really my thing. This weekend though, my high school hockey team rounded up a whole bunch of old players and their parents and we ate appetizers and shared drinks. It was super fun to see these girls. We spent so many hours together each winter and it was really nice to catch up.

Sunday, we went to my brother’s for another Thanksgiving meal with my immediate family. I’m actually shocked at how little I see my only sibling and it’s nice to have all 6 of us under one roof. We got up early and cooked some Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese and slowly drank coffee and caught up on NY Times.

We got home and put up Christmas lights. While finishing our chores, we got some sad news about an old family friend of Justin’s. He lost his battle with cancer. He has a wife and young daughter and my heart is just broken for them and all of his friends and family. He was just a year older than my husband.

I always take a minute to take in the sunset when getting news like this. There’s something so beautiful and sad about that moment, but it’s so important for me.

I’ll go into this holiday season with a sad heart, but a whole lot of love to deal out. Be grateful, be kind and spread the love.