Ahhhh Western Pennsylvania – one of the few places that my kids could be running around outside barefoot and in shorts – wading through a creek one day – and just a few days later, be building snowmen in our backyard.
Moments of note this month:
(0:07) Leander lost his second top tooth at dinner! Now he can sing: All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!
(0:40) The rule is: the Christmas Tree goes up at the beginning of November, but NO ORNAMENTS until after Leander’s birthday! That gives us that beautiful Christmas light glow as the nights get longer, but doesn’t put us full-on into Christmas mode until after Leander’s birthday. (Side note: make sure the lights you put on your tree are NOT twinkle lights before you actually put them on- I got light strings mixed up and somehow ONE twinkle strand on the tree – meaning I had to take lights back off and put lights back on!)
(1:14) As a kid, my Grandma gave me a little Christmas Tree and encouraged me to put it up in my bedroom. I’ve since passed that same tree (and another one, still from my Grandma) on to the kids – they love putting up their own trees every year (and it reminds me of my Grandma)
(2:18) Soaking up the LAST warm, beautiful day of fall!
(4:00) We had the opportunity to travel with Derrick for a quick overnight work trip in West Virginia! We enjoyed the pool, a local park, and some hiking while he was off working – how fun!
(6:01) With my sister, Ruby, in the middle of a battle with cancer and traveling back and forth to Chicago for treatment, we celebrated Leander’s birthday a little early with her and my Mom. Ruby made his cake (as she always does)!
(7:21) Another weekend trip – this time to Hersheypark for their Christmas event!
(8:15) Light Up Night in Downtown Irwin arrived with SNOW! It was EPIC!
(11:46) Our first official snow of the season!
(12:57) Happy Birthday, Meme!
(13:35) Happy Thanksgiving!
Just in case you’ve missed what I’m doing – I decided that I wanted to create a curated “home video” for our family every month (remember those old “home movies” our families used to create? with the giant video recorders that an entire VHS tape fit in?) Those videos were fantastic, but if you’ve ever sat down to watch one (does anyone even own a VHS player anymore?) you very quickly realize that you do a lot of “fast-forwarding”.
So, my goal, is to take all the little videos I take of our family over the course of a month & create a short (my goal is to be around 10 minutes) video of my favorite snippets. I am SO excited to finally have a dedicated place to chronicle my family videos & keep them safe & accessible.
Enjoy a little peek into what our November looked like!
