Thanksgiving morning, we started the day by watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on YouTube. I made sure to get the turkey in the oven, but my pies were already done and that was the only thing I needed to do until the potatoes close to when we ate.
Once I got the turkey in, we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which Ashtyn especially loved. I also read in my book and the girls drew for awhile. When it got closer to when everyone was coming, we cleaned up the house, got out the paper table cloth (I got it at Walmart, it had little activities and pictures on it) for the girls to draw on, and started the potatoes boiling.
Then Lindi, Danny, Hannah, Dalin, and Ben's cousin Chris with his wife Ashley came over and we had our Thanksgiving feast. We did most of the traditional dishes, though we didn't have stuffing. It was delicious.
We ate at one, so I let Rylee stay up for our late lunch, then put her down at 2:30. The girls had so much fun with everyone and doing the activities on the tablecloth. They liked the food for the most part and especially loved the chocolate pie. My favorite this year was my apple pie, it turned out really well and we had made vanilla ice cream to go with it.
After dinner, we turned on Christmas music and everyone visited. Caleb also called and was able to talk for awhile in the evening. After everyone left, we turned on Miracle on 34th Street, which the girls watched the beginning of, but lost interest in by the end. We relaxed together and had more turkey and pie before bed. It was wonderful to spend time with family and relax together.
A few days later, on Saturday, Ben's dad's family had their Thanksgiving get-together, so we did a second Thanksgiving. It was nice to see everyone and the good was yummy. After dinner, Grandma Leah got out 3D wooden puzzles that we helped the girls put together. Then afterward, we went to Ben's parents and Danny helped Ashtyn and I make a wooden manger. It was a great day!
Some other highlights from our month:
We did a thankful tree during the month, and each day when we did scriptures, we would each write down something we were thankful for on a leaf and then put the leaves on the tree. I forgot to take a picture of the tree at the end of the month, but it was cute and a fun way to focus on gratitude.
Our dancing popcorn experiment was a huge hit! All three of them giggled and giggled as the popcorn kernels floated up and down in the jar!
We had a lot of fun painting these leaves with water paints. All three of the girls had me help them, but they had a blast and loved the way their leaves turned out.
When it snowed, we did this little experiment. We made a mini snowman and took it inside. We measured it, and then each took guesses for how long it would take to melt. Then we measured it every half hour--it took about four hours to melt.
The day it snowed, Ben ended work early and we went out to play in the snow together before the sun disappeared. This was the snowman I helped them build, but Ben helped them build an even bigger one. They had so much fun, though true to past years, Rylee and Parker didn't last nearly as long as Ashtyn out in the snow.
Another of our science experiments was making butter. You put cream in a jar and shake it until it turns into the ball of butter. It took forever to shake but we persevered and it was fun. Even Rylee loved shaking the jar! I was also able to talk with them about the science behind it, which was fun. I added salt to our cream and our butter actually turned out pretty yummy.
We did a lot of crafts, but their favorites were probably their toilet paper roll turkeys. We covered these papers with colored paper and then put a face on a toiler paper roll and glued it on. They were fairly sturdy and the girls loved both making them and playing with them.
Ashtyn also did a lot of holiday art lessons on YouTube.
These were our gratitude turkeys. The girls drew a picture of things they were grateful for on the feather and loved making the faces for their turkey bodies.
Our final science experiment was this salt and popcorn in a jar. You mix up the salt and popcorn kernels, then tap the jar against the counter. As you tap, the popcorn kernels float to the top of the salt and it's actually really cool to watch. It was also something the kids could do themselves (the tapping part) which was fun for them.
Our month was a great one and we're having a lot of fun with December now! I love the holidays as a parent, maybe even more than when I was a child myself. It is so fun to share the magic of these holidays with them and the kids bring such a special spirit to them as well.
I hope your holidays have been wonderful so far!
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