In November, each member of our family writes down something that they are thankful for every day. It's fun to look back at previous years and remember what was significant in our family's lives. It is with this "attitude of gratitude" that I list some of the month's blessings:
I'm thankful that we had lots of family time to celebrate Thanksgiving and prepare for the upcoming holiday season. This year, we held our first annual "Thankful for Our Favorite Foods" feast, and invited Mimi and Gawa to celebrate our alternative Thanksgiving with us. No one in our house gets super excited about turkey, and it's a lot of work to prepare a big meal that isn't our favorite... So instead, we put together an eclectic menu of some of our favorite foods, and everyone contributed something that they love. This year's list included:
- Favorite appetizers: mozzarella sticks and shrimp cocktail
- Favorite entrée: Filet mignon and lobster tails
- Favorite sides: Twice baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus (adults), coin carrots (kids), and Mimi's famous "The Salad"
- Favorite Dessert: Fondue
I'm thankful for annual traditions of choosing our Christmas tree, decorating it, and giving the kids their special ornaments:
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| The Santa hats are back! |
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| Precious Peanut. |
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| This year, Luke wore headphones while decorating... because, you know, teenager life. |
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| Our fluffy elf supervised. |
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| 2021 ornament: Pile of books for our Book Worm. |
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| 2021 ornament: Sousaphone for this Marching Band Guy! |
I'm thankful that GCS announced remote learning days the week of Thanksgiving. This meant that we were able to continue our 2021 trend of having a monthly family adventure, and we took a somewhat spontaneous November getaway to the Greenbrier. It's been on my bucket list for years to visit the Greenbrier while it's decorated for Christmas, and it did not disappoint!
Leah exclaimed, "This is the fanciest place I've ever seen!", and we oohed and ahhed at the lovely decorations and iconic Dorothy Draper design throughout the resort.
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| Greenbrier boutiques. |
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| Ballroom. |
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| Casino level: Daddy won some $ at Blackjack, and the kids promptly spent some of his earnings at the arcade! |
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| Sitting room. |
We spent a lovely few days at the Greenbrier and did our first family escape room there:
The kids' "fancy" chess games were illuminated by a giant crystal chandelier from Gone With the Wind. A piece of Greenbrier trivia is that Vivien Leigh gifted this chandelier (which was featured in the ballroom at Tara in the classic film) to the resort:
Leah had the pool all to herself one evening. Here she is, living her best Greenbrier life:
We had afternoon tea in this parlor, and enjoyed live Christmas music by a concert pianist:
We also took a tour of the declassified Cold War underground bunker at the Greenbrier. Our kids know that we jump on educational opportunities at every possible chance, and we were fascinated by the structure that is carved deep into the mountainside beneath the resort. This was once a top secret U.S. government relocation facility for Congress, and a giant emergency fallout shelter is housed behind hidden doors. We toured the living quarters, meeting rooms for Congress, and learned much about the significance that the Greenbrier played during an important time in our country's history. No photos are allowed on the bunker tour, but here is a picture of the West Virginia wing, which lies on top of the shelter:
Another Greenbrier highlight was ordering room service for dinner one evening, and eating "fancy food" in our pjs. We loved a few days to relax and recharge away from home:
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| Christmas decorations on the front of the Greenbrier. |
I'm thankful that as we crawl our way out of this pandemic, that we are able to reconnect and gather with friends again. This WFU-NC State tailgate began in 2015, and is a Winterhoff-Bell favorite:
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| Demon Deacon family. |
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| Reese and Luke: 2021 |
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| Reading at tailgates since 2015... proof that some things never change! |
I'm thankful that masks and no crowds allowed us to feel comfortable attending a WFU basketball game. How we missed doing this in person last year, and it felt great to be back at LJVM cheering on our Deacs!
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| Leah modeling social distancing! |
I am so, so thankful that Leah's age group has been approved to receive the COVID vaccine. She got her shot on the first day that it was available to children this month, and she just received her second vaccine last week. Leah's less than a week away from full immunity, and we are grateful for the scientists who developed the vaccine and for the access that we have to this life saving, public health measure:
I'm thankful that after almost two years, these kids picked up right where they left off when we visited our favorite used book store this month. Luke sat at the trading card table for over an hour, poring through thousands of cards:
Leah curled up with a pile of books, and both kids came home with stacks of new-to-them volumes to read:
We are thankful that music is Luke's passion and joy right now. Any time he is home, he's playing an instrument or listening to music. Mark and I had no idea that the tunes coming from Luke's tuba, bass guitar, ukelele, and keyboard would make up the soundtrack of this season of our lives. We were preparing lunch the other day in the kitchen, and through the walls, we could hear the refrain of "Here Comes Santa Claus" on the tuba... I peeked into our downstairs guest room/music room and found this:
And on that "note", we are very thankful that our music man was able to perform in his first live middle school band concert since the spring of 2019. Watching your kid do what they love is one of the sweetest joys of being a parent:
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| I can see his smile behind his mask! |
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| This shot includes our special carpool group as well as Luke's best friend, Aiden. |
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| Luke & Aiden. |
We are also thankful that Leah's school is bringing back fun days and extracurricular activities. Here she is, modeling her outfit for Idiom Day!
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| Cloud Nine. |
Leah is also running for ORES Student Council Vice President, but I forgot to take a picture of her adorable poster. You have our vote, sweet girl!
Last, but not least, I'm thankful for a joy-filled November Saturday afternoon of watching Luke's Twelve Competition. Twelve is a knowledge-based academic competition that challenges teams of students to answer questions covering a variety of subject areas. Twelve teams of twelve students tackled twelve topics with twelve questions in each round. The twelve topics at this year's state competition were: NC state symbols, physical education, arts & media, literature, math, world history, life science, US history, NC geography, writing, technology, and physical sciences. Luke participated in this extracurricular activity in 6th grade and really enjoyed it. The trivia/Quiz bowl format is right up his alley, and Luke was recruited for the NWMS Twelve Competition team this fall. He's juggled after-school practices with band rehearsals, and was excited about the state-wide competition this month. Luke's school had an amazing performance this year, and placed third in the state:
Luke was also chosen to be on the All-State Twelve Team, due to having one of the twelve highest scores out of all participants competing:
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| All-State Twelve Team |
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| NWMS All-State Group. |
We were blown away, and so proud of that kiddo for this incredible accomplishment!
As November comes to a close, we are reminded that we have so much to be thankful for this month (and always).
Our cup of blessings does truly runneth over!
