After an almost three week hiatus, I'm back.  I didn't actually go anywhere.  Each day I had every intention of posting to the blog, but one day ran in to another and before I knew it weeks had passed.  Our house is officially on the market, and if you've ever tried to sell your house (and buy another one....with a child(ren) at home), you know that it is both time consuming and mentally exhausting.  Que the violins.  While I didn't want to try to sell our house over the holidays, it is what it is.  Speaking of which...

Where has the year gone?  It's already time for Thanksgiving!  As the holiday season approaches, I'm happy to share some of my favorite things about this time of year, starting with November favorites.

Topping my list of favorites this time of year, are the holiday movies on The Hallmark Channel.  With Christmas movies playing all day, every day, it's always easy to find something Christmasy to watch while we bake cookies or decorate for Christmas.





November is also Operation Christmas Child shoebox collection month.  This is our second year to pack and send a shoebox with Katherine.  Last year, she "helped," but only being 21 months old, she wasn't really sure what she was doing.  This year, I showed her a video from the Samaritan's Purse website and explained to her that some kids in other countries don't get Christmas gifts, and we can help them have a nice Christmas by filling a shoebox with goodies and sending it to them.  She immediately got on board with the project and decided she would send a shoebox to a little girl.  So off to Target we went, filling our basket with lots of goodies.  She helped pack the shoebox once we got back home, and proudly dropped it off at church on Sunday.




Can I say that I'm super excited about Adele's new album coming out today?  Love her.  Love her new album.  Love it all.




And last but certainly not least, since November is officially the month of thankfulness, being thankful is obviously a favorite thing this month.  While I try to be thankful every single day of the year, I'm reminded of how blessed I really am around this time of year.  We are so very blessed and I'm so thankful for that.