November 2024 - The King-Whited Family Blog

Holiday Bingo

November-January is officially “Holiday” Season. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, Christmas, Friendsgiving, work holiday parties, etc. Some of these holidays get celebrated multiple times, with different sides of the family or friends. There are Secret Santa gift exchanges, theme days at school, cookie exchanges, Elf on the Shelf, and all things “holiday fun”. You want to make the holidays magical for your children. You want to celebrate with every side of the family and friends and neighbors and there’s so much holiday cheer how can you say no to anything?!

My list looks like this- My husband’s list looks like this-

Host Holiday (multiply this by how many holidays you host) -Clean the house -Menu plan -Shop -Cook -Coordinate with guests	Buy gift for wife
Prepare meals for all parties we are invited to
Buy all Christmas gifts for kids
Stocking stuffers for kids
Buys all Christmas gifts for relatives
Donations for school and work holiday collections
Decorate
Travel logistics Pet sitter Pack Unpack
Stock up on wrapping paper, tape, batteries, etc.
Kids to see Santa
Kids to see lights
Make gingerbread houses
Make gift idea lists for a the kids for relatives
Christmas card
Holiday outfits for kids
Teacher gifts
100 other things not listed above but also necessary

Do you know what doesn’t pause during the holiday season? Menu planning, grocery shopping, packing lunches, cooking meals, house cleaning, laundry, work deadlines, meetings, kids’ sports, kids’ schoolwork, library day at school, snack time, pets, dishes… ALL THE NORMAL THINGS.

And so, in the midst of the hurricane shitshow inside your brain that is desperately trying to keep track of the normal list and now the holiday list too, something (seemingly not that big of a deal) happens, and then next thing you know, you are MELTING THE FUCK DOWN because someone just suggested a last-minute white elephant game. You just need $10 gifts for each member of the family- wrapped and ready to go by tomorrow.

And your husband, who doesn’t seem to have a clue that your list and his list are WILDLY DIFFERENT says something like, “what’s he big deal?” and your head spins ALL THE WAY AROUND while steam shoots out of your ears. Because you’ve already been to Target 14 times in the last 2 days and you were just barely keeping your head above water and it’s not the one thing, it’s the 150 things collectively over the course of just a few weeks. And you just can’t be responsible for one more thing, even if it is a simple request.

And so I present HOLIDAY MOM BINGO.

My sincere wish for all moms everywhere is that you make it through the holidays without checking any of these things off the list. Because even one of these can push you over the edge and result in you shoveling handfuls of candy into your mouth while crying while yelling while stomping around while… whatever it is that you do when you’re DONE.

Share this with your friends. Don’t share this with your husband. He won’t understand.

October

I think I start every blog post the same- the month has flown by. But we are just so busy all the time. I can’t keep up! I sometimes think I need to say “no” to more things, but everything is fun and stuff we want to do. So we keep the calendar packed and we’re all happy. But for the record, if it wasn’t bringing all of us joy, I would pull back. I don’t think you should be busy just to be busy.

The beginning of October is front loaded with Xander’s birthday (October 2) and Nate and my wedding anniversary (October 4). A lot of celebrating in a short period of time.

Nate and I had a lovely kid-free night planned- dinner out, brunch reservations for the next day… unfortunately grandma Debbie got the flu and we had to postpone. We ordered pizza and had family movie night and rung in our 10 year snuggled with 2 boys and 2 dogs. Two weeks later we had a make up anniversary and I didn’t take any photos, but we had a fancy dinner, a really nice brunch the next day and it was wonderful.

Anniversary/birthday weekend was also the Twin Cities Marathon weekend, so before we had 11 excited kids to our house to celebrate Xander, Melissa and I went to cheer on Aaron as he ran the marathon. The weather was gorgeous, the crowd was happy and it was really fun to be a cheerleader.

Xander’s birthday party was “sports theme” and we had a bunch of fun games, an ice cream cake and 11 very excited kids running around screaming. It was a great day! For school, his treat had to be nut free and dairy free. I had a dairy free butter and decided to make rice krispie treats. He didn’t think they were quite “special” enough, because, well, he is 100% my child, so we turned them into custom baseballs and he was satisfied.

Lacrosse continued on Sundays and ended with a 2 day tournament. Are we a sports family? I don’t know. I was not thrilled to give up a whole weekend for sports, but it was pretty fun and the boys did a great job.

I spent a weekend at Camp Widjiwagan for their 95th anniversary event and the 4th issue of my magazine came out! https://www.ymcanorth.org/adventure/alumni

I saw a video on Instagram of this climbing thing in someone’s basement, so I sent it to Danny and asked if he could build it for me. Instead, he came over and started brainstorming an entire ropes course. And as soon as Xander heard the word “bouldering wall” (which is like a climbing wall, but low so there isn’t a harness), he was obsessed. So last weekend, the boys and Danny spent a long day transforming the basement. They aren’t quite done, but have made a lot of progress. While Danny was working, the boys were pushing him out of the way to try things out, so I think it is going to be a hit.

In the 4 years we’ve lived here, we haven’t done any house projects (except for painting my basement steps rainbow). Now we have a ropes course. And as of last week, we have 8 brand new windows!! Half of our house already had new windows and it was such a drastic difference in the rooms with new windows vs old ones. We have been talking about this project for a while and they switched all of them out in a day!

October= Halloween! The weekend before Halloween is Heather and Andy’s annual neighborhood halloween party and it is possibly my favorite neighborhood event of the year (and that’s a big statement!). Heather hosts a scavenger hunt where you have to run through the neighborhood and take a photo with each halloween decoration she has listed. She has a candy hunt (like easter eggs, but candy), games, a signature cocktail and a costume contest.

The boys said they like the halloween party better than actual Halloween.

Xander and I won the scavenger hunt (I was screaming at him to run faster, and he was yelling that he had a cramp and could we please slow down… and I screamed at my small child, “we can stop once we’ve won”… so, ya know, mother/son bonding time…). It was so fun. Augustus won the kids best costume contest, which I considered a personal win because that thing took a LOT of engineering and hot glue. Pinterest made it look so simple, but it was NOT. Nate helped me and even with the two of us working hard, I wasn’t sure it was going to come together.

Xander did some brainstorming with Aaron and Melissa and decided he wanted to be wheel of fortune. I bought a lazy susan and we crafted the wheel together! He and Nate watch Wheel every night and he was very committed to having the wheel look accurate. Nate and I went as a hot dog and macaroni and cheese. It was a great party and I am already excited for next year.

On Halloween, we crammed 30 people into my house for pizza skull dinner. I didn’t take any photos except the pizza skulls! I didn’t take any photos trick or treating. I don’t know what I was thinking! The weather was cold and windy and it snowed a little bit earlier in the day. We were not in a rush to get outside. But once we were walking, the wind had died down and it was actually a nice night.

The street that runs parallel to ours has been dubbed “halloween street” because the whole street shuts down and the lights and decorations are over the top. I should have taken video- it’s such a spectacular sight. The boys have no idea how cool their trick or treating is. We don’t even knock on doors- everyone is just standing out in their yards and the kids walk by collecting candy in front of these amazing displays. It was so cool. We walked up and down that street and ours and then both boys were done. They wanted to go to Sam’s house and trade candy, and help answer the door for other trick or treaters.

Halloween was on a Thursday and they had Friday off, which I was grateful for. We were supposed to have a Halloween book party the weekend before Halloween, but the boys were so busy with Danny in the basement that we didn’t have a chance. The day after was actually the perfect, low key activity. We gathered all of our Halloween books and lots of snacks and snuggled into my bed and read books. I had decorated the bed with Halloween themed bedding and I found lots of Halloween themed snacks to eat. I’m feeling like my babies aren’t going to be babies much longer, so I was happy to read all of our favorite little kid books.

October weather has been beautiful and we’ve been outside a lot. We’ve done a lot of legos and had a few movie nights at Kelly and Silas’s house.

At school, they do a lot of kid-led learning and there was a suggestion that there should be a student representative on the school board. There were 8 kids who wanted to run from Xander’s class, so they gave speeches and voted. And guess who won?! Xander was chosen by his class to run.

On Halloween, 18 students stood up in front of the whole school and gave their speeches. Nate and I went to watch and I was so so proud of him. This is such a weird thing- kids from 1st-6th grade are all going for one position. There are 18 kids. I think they probably need to re-work the concept for next year, but I love that he was confident enough to give a speech and be involved. We’ve talked a lot about it being fun to win, but either way, he should be so proud.

The school will hold the official election on election day. So more to come…

September

School started and we were off and running! And like a blink of an eye, September flew by! I love summer so much and I am so sad it’s over. But I was also very excited to get back to a school year routine. I think the boys were ready too. Every week of the summer was something different. And every weekend was jam packed. The school year is a little more reliable in terms of what we are doing on a daily and weekly basis.

The boys headed back to school the day after Labor Day. Xander in 3rd grade and Augustus in 1st. Xander has the same teacher as last year (who we like) and Augustus has a super awesome teacher, so I’m excited for both of them. They both like school and missed their friends. The school moved buildings this year and the new building is even closer to our house than before (less than a mile away) and is really nice. Their school is only 5 years old, and I am happy to see it growing and evolving.

We biked to school several times in September, which the boys loved. We celebrated the first week of school with a pizza party in Melissa and Aaron’s back yard. I piloted an event called “Soup Sunday” with Kelly and Silas and Aaron and Melissa (soon to roll out to the whole neighborhood). We came together to eat soup and salad and bread and fancy dessert. I imagined a cozy event with chunky sweaters, but the weather was still warm and gorgeous, so we wore shorts and had the windows open. I plan to do this event every month and eventually invite the whole neighborhood.

We went to a beer tasting event at a nearby liquor store.

The boys started lacrosse and had games every Sunday. Nate, Grandma Debbie, Danny, Heather and I all learned about being youth sports fans in the fall- some Sundays were FREEZING (I called D&H in a panic and begged them to bring me coffee and a blanket) and some were so hot we almost fainted (not pictured- my mom and I huddled under an umbrella, trying not to burn alive). The boys really enjoyed themselves but I still have no idea any of the rules of lacrosse.

My baby cousin who is, I swear to God, an actual toddler, not a day over 5 years old, got MARRIED. I was personally offended by her being an ADULT, because, like I said, she is 5 years old in my mind. But she’s actually a gorgeous, wonderful, amazing woman who married a great guy and it was so fun to celebrate them.

The day of the wedding, I got to be the wedding manager, and help out with pre-wedding stuff, ceremony management, and setting up the cake table (Gussie was my assistant for that job). We had so much fun dancing and it was a wonderful day!