thanksgiving festivities!

With the exception of last year (when Jude was only two weeks old), Shawn and I have traveled to either Ohio or Indiana for every Thanksgiving of our marriage. Since we just traveled for Jude's birthday, we decided the wisest thing would be to stay home this year. After almost five years of marriage, it was time for me to make my first turkey ever! I used a recipe from my friend Katie, and Shawn and I both concur that it was ridiculously delicious.

Dinner for the three of us. Well, Jude ate applesauce and two green beans - so dinner for the two for the two of us:

Because we stayed home and I hadn't recently given birth, we were actually able to get our Christmas decorations up in a timely manner this year. Yay for timely manners! Our tree is up and decorated (with presents already underneath, no less!), our stocking are hung, our candles/nativity/santas/snowmen/etc. are out, the lights and garland on the outside of our home are hung, and our small tree by the front door and red chair pillows are out, too! It's amazing what you can done when you're home for Thanksgiving!

In the midst of all of that, I was also able to make a new tree skirt and stocking for Jude. Here's the tree skirt, which is actually reversible. The other side is that stripey candy cane pattern.

The tree, pre-ornamanents:
...And Jude's stocking is on the far right. I wanted to stick with the snowflake theme of mine and Shawn's and am mostly pleased with how it turned out. At the very least, it was significantly cheaper than buying a new stocking!
I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving, and that you were able to spend time loving on your family. It's amazing to see how much more important holidays are to Shawn and I now, and I have to admit that because of Jude -this was one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever.