Today is the last day of November which for us was a month packed with travel and celebration. I think I basically checked off all my festive to-do items for the month:
- We loved traveling to New York! We walked and walked around the city and of course never ran out of things to see.
- We celebrated Cecy’s birthday in New York and with more family when we got back home to Kansas City. We wanted to keep it simple, but we sure spread out the fun and she loved opening presents, looking at her cards and decorations, and eating cake.
- We went to Springfield, MO which is my husband’s home town and where we both went to college. The day before Thanksgiving (Wild Turkey Wednesday) we went out with friends to Missouri Spirits which is a ‘spirit house’ with handcrafted drinks using fresh local ingredients.
- I made a cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I found the recipe from William Sonoma, but changed it a little bit:
Ingredients:
half an orange
granny smith apple
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
In sauce pan add the apples after you peel and dice them. Next add juice from your orange and zest from the orange peel. Add cranberries, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Bring to boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan partially. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, the apple is tender and the cranberries have burst, 10 to 15 minutes. This will make your kitchen smell amazing!
- #OptOutside Black Friday – we had to postpone our outside fun for a day because we are dealing with icy rain, but on Saturday evening we bundled up and went to the Overland Park Arboretum’s Holiday Luminary Walk. We enjoyed walking through candlelit paths, listening to Christmas carols, and drinking Louisburg Cider. This event is also taking place on December 4-5!
In December my festive family to-do list includes:
- Baking holiday cookies
- Making a homemade gingerbread house
- Enjoying Christmas lights
- Snuggling by the fireplace
- Focusing on giving
rocky mountain tot 