ex(PR)essed

What a great Thanksgiving holiday! On Tuesday night, Jeff and I hosted his parents and brother Tim overnight. Then, my parents arrived Thursday afternoon for the Thanksgiving festivities. It was great to see both sets of parents without having to travel at all. Love that!

I really like hosting my parents for Thanksgiving. Before I got married, it was our tradition to have Thanksgiving in central Pennsylvania and then go antiquing on Black Friday. It was nice to re-visit that tradition this year.

When my parents come for Thanksgiving, the day ends up being very relaxing. This year, I got up around 9 a.m., leisurely drank my coffee and read the newspaper, puttered in the kitchen, and spent some time in Clifford (our big red chair) admiring all of Martha Stewart’s holiday wonderfulness.

The meal all came together wonderfully, and we enjoyed every bite! After dinner, mom and I jetted off to Michael’s — they were open from 6-9 p.m. Thanksgiving night. It really wasn’t terribly crowded, and we enjoyed shopping around and gathering bargains. We also bought some necessary supplies for our button trees (more to come on that later).

On Friday, we enjoyed our annual Thanksgiving antiquing trip with Jim and Amy VanZandt.

We met them in New Oxford where we spent the better part of the day shopping for bargains. Somehow, we managed to leave without this beauty, although we all agreed it would look fabulous over my mantle. I mean, who doesn’t love a bull painted on velvet?

The other disturbing sight from our day of shopping? (Book lovers…brace yourselves.)

In our group was a librarian, retired elementary school teacher, and six avid readers. It pained us to see these books so carelessly strewn outside. It was clear that some had been wet and most were horribly abused. It was almost too much for us to take, and we purposefully looked away when passing by the second time.

Saturday was comprised of more antiquing and shopping…and making a button tree! I had seen these adorable button trees on my favorite non-family-member’s blog: Ali Edwards. Mom and I decided to take a try at making our own button trees. Now…it wasn’t the easiest or the least frustrating craft that I’ve ever embarked on, but I coudln’t be happier with the result! I was so button-happy that I attempted a second one yesterday, so I now have a pair. Too cute.

Now another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it’s onward to Christmas. Hard to believe that today is December 1! In the next 24 days, I have cards to write, cookies to bake, gifts to purchase and wrap, and a house to decorate. Whoa. I think we should all be given a mandatory sabbatical in the month of December…