Let’s Look At…Hosting Holiday Parties

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s Let’s Look day with Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything! If you’re new here, it’s one day a month that we share a little peak into some aspect of our lives. So far this year, I’ve shared:

Today, we’re talking about hosting holiday parties. I’m not much of a host. It’s not something that comes naturally to me, but I always love the time spent with friends and sharing our home at the end of hosting a get together. Around the holidays, I always host our girls’ Christmas book club. In fact, our book club is in two nights! We don’t read anymore as a group….but it is an excuse to get together once a month and reconnect.

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Friday Favorites {12.09.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

While I had my act together ordering Christmas presents, they’ve all showed up in the past week and a half, and my goodness, I need to get to wrapping! I’m due for a big wrapping day coming up here….I hope you all had a great week and have some fun, festive things planned for the weekend! Our oldest, Harrison is with Nathan in Denver for the weekend, so Jonathan and I are on our own!

It’s so simple, but I love that Jonathan will still let me rock him to sleep at naptime. An absolute dream.

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Thanksgiving 2022

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Our 2022 Thanksgiving was everything that “remember the one year” stories are made of. In case things seem too perfect and shiny over here, this Thanksgiving was full of mishaps, sickness, and of course, two children who did not care for essentially anything that was served for Thanksgiving.

Harrison had been sick up until the day before Thanksgiving, and Nathan we thought was better with his fever breaking Tuesday night, but out of nowhere on Thanksgiving, had a 103* fever come roaring back for another 24 hours. Still, Nathan insisted that he was fully capable of smoking the turkey for Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving must go on!

We started our morning with our traditional biscuits and gravy during the parade/World Cup soccer viewing.

It was delicious. I loved it. The little boys didn’t touch it.

Then I proceeded to cook all of the sides for the day. Our menu for Thanksgiving this year:

You know what turned out amazing? Everything that I made, aside from the stuffing.

As Nathan took off the turkey, he informed me that he had made a few mistakes cooking the turkey given that he was delirious the whole day…including forgetting to inject the turkey, forgetting to put it on a roasting rack inside of the pan, putting any liquid in the bottom of the pan…then during the cooking, forgetting to rotate the turkey so it cooked unevenly, to finally as he pulled it out realizing for the first time that he had cooked the entire bird upside down. We ate a portion of the turkey from the area we knew for sure was completely cooked, and the rest of the turkey went straight into the trash at the end of the night.

You know who ate Thanksgiving dinner? Me, and me alone. The boys ate a roll, and Nathan pushed the food around his plate and told me the brussels were good.

It was one for the memory books. There’s nothing more traditional than a sick kids/(husband) on the holidays. And boy, did we get that in spades this year.

Here’s our very tired, beleaguered crew for our traditional Thanksgiving day picture…

Our Advent Calendar

Posted on by Lauren Lane

This advent season, I wanted a way to incorporate all of the holiday memories and experiences I look forward to this time of year. But I also wanted to incorporate and focus on ways of giving back, too, and finding ways for the boys to start to learn how to give back. Thus was born this year’s advent calendar.

I sat down about a month ago and collected experiences and ways to give back in one big long list. Then a few weeks back, I looked at our family calendar and started assigning the items to a particular day in the 24 days that lead up to Christmas. About half of our days will be fun Christmas experiences this year, and the other half will be ways that we can bless and be the gift to someone else.

I noticed this fall with Harrison, our oldest, in particular as we collected peanut butter for a food drive for kids that didn’t have enough to eat at home on the weekends, that he really started to grasp that there were kids that weren’t as privileged as himself. And I love that their little hearts, even as young as Jonathan, are already so geared towards helping others. I hope we can encourage that now and as they grow to be looking for ways to be helpers all year long.

If the boys aren’t already so excited to start opening the calendar, I think my excitement may top even theirs!

Here are some experiences that we have planned for them this year!

  • Popcorn & Christmas movie night
  • Visit Santa
  • Snack tray dinner by the fire
  • Wear your Christmas jammies to bed
  • Listen to Christmas songs during dinner
  • Read the Christmas story
  • Hot chocolate + Home Alone movie night

And here are some of the ways that we’re going to serve others this season:

  • Make a snack basket for delivery workers
  • Donate a new toy to a child in need
  • Pick out a present for your brother
  • Deliver presents to the neighbors
  • Refill the bird feeders and bird baths

The excitement for little kids in opening the activity and seeing at as special before it even happens is half the magic, in my opinion. Activities don’t have to be big, expensive, and grandiose. Little things that are slightly different and outside of their norm is what makes it special to little kids.

It’s a blessing to be able to help build someone’s childhood memories. I’m hopeful that there were will be memories created this year that the boys look forward to year after year. Or maybe many years from now when they have kids of their own, they’ll think about recreating with their own families.

What are ways that you give back this season with your kids? I’d love ideas for outside of the Christmas season and for next year, too!

How I’m Keeping Holiday Shopping Organized

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It never fails that December 16th-ish rolls around, and I start to panic. Gifts have been stuck in hiding places all over the house. I have no exact idea what I have bought for each person, and I start to think that maybe I haven’t done enough. Thus ensues the panic buying leading up to Christmas…

At least Baby J is displaying how I feel inside. I’m not proud of my tendency….and that’s why I decided that things needed to happen differently this year.

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What’s Up Wednesday {11.30.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

The holidays always seem to fly by, and this time feels no different. Even though it’s been a month since my last What’s Up Wednesday post, it feels so much shorter than that. I’m looking forward to so many things this month with the kids, especially! It’s such a magical time with little ones!

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: I struggle figuring out what to make for the family the week after a holiday. It feels like so much effort goes into planning out the holiday meals, and then the next week I have no motivation to do anything…so we are doing spaghetti and meatballs, all of which I made double of the last time and froze half of them for just such an occasion. Crockpot carne asada tacos, and lemon butter chicken piccata.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Our Thanksgiving was such a comedy of errors….Nathan was still pretty sick, but insistent on cooking the turkey. Needless to say, he made countless mistakes in his cooking, including cooking the entire bird upside down.

At the end of the day, I was the only one who ate Thanksgiving dinner. The boys each had a roll, and Nathan pushed food around his plate. One that we will never forget, for sure!

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November 2022 Book Review

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Hi! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving break! It feels like it’s been forever from this little space. Whatever sickness took down Jonathan proceeded to take down Harrison and Nathan the week of Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it’s Monday morning and this is the first time I’m writing to you when my house feels eerily quiet after two weeks of sick people at home. This morning, everyone is back to school and work. I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for a rough sickness season, but truthfully, I’m not ready. I’m already tired just thinking about it.

Today is my (usually) monthly book review. This November I finished three books, and I wish I could say I loved the as much as my October books, but alas, I wasn’t that lucky.

I started this month finishing The Glass Castle.

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And then the wheels fell off…

Posted on by Lauren Lane

All of the crummy fall sickness has found our house this week. I’ve washed more sheets and clothes, slept in a crib, on the floor next to a bed, wiped noses, served up more Motrin in the past week than we have for awhile. So as we’re recovering, I didn’t get to writing a Friday Favorites. I’m going to take next week off to get everybody back up to full health and hopefully enjoy a nice Thanksgiving. I’ll see you all back here the week after Thanksgiving. Have the best holiday!

Lanes Lately – November 2022

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week. Truly can’t believe it. I’ve got a Thanksgiving meal to finish planning and shopping for, and Christmas lists to be finalized for Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping!

MAKING: Christmas gift lists! I’m being more intentional this year about keeping track of what I’m planning on getting each person and what has already been purchased. I always feel like I get to the week before Christmas and can’t remember what I bought for everybody and then overbuy because I panic that I haven’t bought enough for one or both of the boys.

I have very clear memories of my mom not remembering either, and finding Christmas presents stuffed away in her closet months later that she had intended to give on Christmas morning.

WEARING: Sweatshirts and leggings almost every day! Maternity pants are still a little big for me right now, but I’ve definitely sized out of anything remotely considered comfortable in the normal pants world.

LOVING: I’m obsessed with this candle. I just ordered another one for my office! It smells like apples, vanilla, and just a hint of oak. And oh my, it’s so cozy and perfect.

I’m also loving doing Thankful Turkeys with the boys this year. I don’t think there’s probably any mother of toddlers who isn’t following Busy Toddler, but this is one of her activities for the month of November. Each morning, I sit down with the boys at breakfast and ask them what is something or someone that they love, and write it on a feather and add it to each of their Thankful Turkeys. Both the boys and I look forward to this every morning. In fact, the other day, I had forgotten, and Harrison yelled at me down the hall, “Aren’t we going to do our Thankful feathers today?”

Can you guess which turkey belongs to which boy?

USING:

This pillow. Obviously, every night. But I got this pillow for Nathan last year for his birthday, and I took a nap with it recently and woke up thinking to myself…..I have to have this pillow. I’m a side sleeper, and the pickiest person about my sleep set-up. I wish I was one of those people that could sleep anywhere at any time, but I’m just not. I believe in investing in the things that contribute to a really good night of sleep. A nice mattress. Soft, cool sheets. And a really good pillow. Nothing changes how your day starts like a good night of rest.

DRINKING:

Currently I’m enjoying my one very cherished cup of coffee a day. Of all the food items you give up in pregnancy, I think enjoying a couple nice hot cups of a coffee in the morning is the one that I miss the most.

ENJOYING:

My boys. I know that sounds lame, but I think to myself at least once a day, wow. I love this age. I love this time of year with so much excitement for them. (And also, why can’t my two year old just do what I say rather than shouting ‘NO!’ at every last request in endless quest for power. 🙂 )

That’s a little bit of our life lately! Hope you’re having a good week!