Turkey Day Recap, Soup Kitchen, & Santa in a Bottle

Well it appears that I am back to my old habits of maintaining a two week lull of no blogging. I promise you that I don't do it on purpose, as usual - life just tends to happen. So as my usual style of catching up, here is a hodge podge summary of what we have been up to over the last two weeks.

First up, Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!

We had a wonderful time spending Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Tammy's house. Even though it wasn't actually Christmas, Amelia somehow left there with a present from her Nana, her Gigi, and her Aunt Tammy. She played hide and seek with her cousin Ryder and Aunt Beth and Gigi, she sang songs, and she ate more Thanksgiving food than her dear old Mama. Girlfriend is a big fan of the Thanksgiving holiday.

And I am a big fan of the pictures she recently took for the holidays, although I have to say she needs to STOP GROWING so fast. I mean seriously, who is this teenager?

Speaking of the holidays, one of my bucket list items has always been to serve in a soup kitchen over the holidays. It's an easy enough goal to achieve one would think, but for some reason, I've never actually made myself take action and do it.

Until this year.

I organized a group of my co-workers and we picked the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and volunteered at the local homeless shelter. Some people served food, some organized the walk-in fridge throwing away expired items, and some people washed and cut fruit. We may have all had different jobs, but we all were required to rock the always flattering hair net. Which I thought was especially festive.

It was a wonderfully blessed experience and I am SO glad that I did it. I really hope this becomes a yearly tradition. Really it should be a more than yearly tradition. From my brief time there, it was apparent that they are a very busy location, serving over 1,000 men, women, and children every day and they can use all the help they can get. When Amelia gets older, I look forward to bringing her with me to serve. I want her to grow up in a culture of giving and serving others!

Well, I think that pretty much catches us up to date.

Thanksgiving - check.

Soup Kitchen - check.

Christmas shopping - non-existent.

OH right...I'm a super procrastinator this year. I also haven't watched ANY Christmas movies which is highly uncharacteristic for me this time of year. Well, unless you count Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas with Amelia.

Maybe this year I can convince her to watch Elf with me. I mean, he's no Peppa Pig, but what kid can't relate to a little, "SANTAAAAA! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!"

Considering Amelia basically screamed that exact same line to me in the middle of Target the other day, I would say she can definitely relate.

Christmas is going to be super fun this year. Just ask Amelia. Any time she sees a toy she wants in a store or on TV or whatever, she immediately says with complete confidence, "Santa will get it for me."

Hmm. Santa's not a magic genie, sweetheart.

Although, now that I'm thinking about it. Genie's usually only grant three wishes, so maybe she's on to something here.

Santa only grants three present wishes,dear - sorry that's the rules!

I'm sure she'll understand. She's a totally logical two year old.