Kelle, Author at Enjoying the Small Things

Enjoying: Thanksgiving

November 29, 2015 By Kelle

Let’s begin with this picture, shall we?

Since Thanksgiving, he–like his mother–has become obsessed with all things “Krimmif.” Krimmif tree, Krimmif lights, Krimmif movies and music and decorations. Let the fun begin.

Krimmif pajamas for a round of Duck, Duck, Goose.

And our first fire of the season, on Thanksgiving morning.

We continued our Thanksgiving tradition of our pajama breakfast with our neighbors, one of my favorite mornings of the year. Coffee, Mimosas, pancakes, Christmas music, Macy’s parade and all the cozy feels.

(watching the parade)

And then back home to prepare pies and potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner at Heidi’s house this year.

We looked this put together for all of the sixty seconds it took to take a few pictures by the woods.

We’ve been talking for years about merging our Thanksgiving plans–so glad it finally happened.

This leaf was my favorite. Be grateful for the basics, man. “For my life. Also family.” The rest is just icing.

The rest of the weekend has been dedicated to decorating the house and soaking up family.

And cleaning up the 500,000 paper cootie catchers Lainey learned how to make.

Feeling grateful and excited for so many special things we love about this season.

Epic Stocking Stuffer Guide and more holiday fun to come. My inner elf is alive and strong.

Thanksgiving Grace

November 25, 2015 By Kelle

Growing up a pastor’s kid with both grandfathers who were also pastors, everything about Thanksgiving–the meal planning, the table setting, the family’s arrival, the kitchen hustle, the gathering to the table–was all simply a trail of stepping stones to the final destination, the main event of our holiday–the prayer before the meal. My grandpa delivering the Thanksgiving prayer? It was the State of the Union for our family. The prayer was long and covered all the bases from the hungry children of Africa to my little cousin’s upcoming violin concert. But what I remember most was watching my grandpa break down when he started saying thanks for his family–how much he loved us. He’d just stop and cry–shoulders shaking, no sound–and we’d all sit with the silence and wait for him to finish. Year after year after year. The love of family–it’s the jugular vein, man.

Thanksgiving Grace has evolved for me. A very long time ago, I used to wake up every morning at 5:00 and kneel at a couch for an hour begging God for answers because I was convinced that desperation was attractive to God. Then I discarded it all and replaced it with skepticism and confusion. Stopped praying completely. Tried to define it. Rebuilt it. And finally just let go.

Today prayer and Thanksgiving Grace to me look like dancing in my kitchen, running to my journal to scratch out some words in my head, crying through a poem, texting love notes to a friend, whispering thanks for this moment into the universe–to a higher power I believe in but can’t define, cuddling close to my kids while they sleep and feeling their breath, holding Brett’s hand when I feel a little bit far away from him but also perfectly in sync, tasting something wonderful, feeling proud of something I created, reading great words, hearing from someone that I did something to make life better for them, learning something new, looking at the moon, tapping out a caption to an Instagram post the night before Thanksgiving.
And watching my grandpa stop and cry and compose himself over talking about his family? I feel that every day. I think that’s called prayer.

Happy Thanksgiving. Say some kind of prayer–sing, dance, paint, text someone, hug someone, whisper an intention, write on a piece of paper what you are most grateful for and tuck it in a pocket of your purse. There’s no wrong way to do it. Of this, I am sure.

Amen.

Make Stuff: Mini Thanksgiving Pie Placeholders

November 23, 2015 By Kelle

The Christmas decorations came out of the attic. I repeat, the Christmas decorations came out of the attic.

…and then a little cold front came sweeping through this morning–still a far cry from the gorgeous snow scenes being texted from our family in the north, but still. Happy, happy. I love everything about this time of year and I can’t help but feel like a kid, excited for all of it. This week we are burrowed in, making and baking, decorating and planning. One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving dinner is setting the table. I love to make it as special as possible and enjoy planning all the little details–the tablecloth, the napkins, candles, flowers–anything that will help set the tone for a cozy, magical setting. One of the special table details we use for holidays is place cards–an extra little touch and Lainey’s favorite thing to help with.

We’ve done everything from pinecone turkeys and painted rocks to simple sprigs of fir tied with ribbon. This year, I wanted to do something kid-friendly and had the idea for mini Thanksgiving pies made out of cupcake liners. I’m in love with how they turned out, and they were super easy to make.

Are you a cherry, pumpkin or apple pie lover? I’m cherry all the way.

Thanksgiving Pie Place Holders

To make, you’ll need:

Silver cupcake liners
Light tan and dark tan felt
Small red pom poms
Hot glue gun

Cut your cupcake liners down so that they are the height of a mini pie dish.

Trace a circle the diameter of the cupcake “pie pan” (roughly, doesn’t have to be perfect) on the lighter tan felt, but don’t cut it yet. You need to add a pie flute.

Add a scalloped edge around the circle. I cut one without tracing it as I cut my circle out, but if kids are doing the cutting, they probably need to draw the fluted edge first (the permanent marker might show even when you flip the crust, so you might want to use a less obvious marker than the one we used).

Cut the crust out and flip over so that no marker shows.

Carefully poke the end of your scissors into the middle to cut out the inside of your crust, leaving only the fluted edge.

For the pumpkin (darker tan) and apple (lighter tan) pies, use the inside of the crust you just cut out for a stencil guide to cut another circle.

Hot glue along the edge of the inside pie felt and secure onto the top of the cupcake liner. Then hot glue the outer fluted crust edge into place to complete your pie. For the apple pie, we cut some teeny tiny scraps of darker felt and glued them (with regular Elmers glue) to make a design on the top of the crust.

For the cherry pie, fill the cupcake liner with red pom poms.

Cut strips of light tan felt and arrange to make a lattice top, trimming edges to size.

Glue edges of lattice strips onto cupcake liner.

Add fluted pie crust edge to top and hot glue in place to secure.

We didn’t weight our pies, but you could fill them with a little plaster or clay before gluing the tops down if you want to save them and use for another holiday (otherwise cupcake liner might get crumpled).

Add folded cards with names to complete place holders, and arrange on table. Now all you need is a little dollop of whipped cream!

Be still my miniature-loving heart.

More holiday freak flag to come.

(Psst…this boy slept in his big boy bed all night last night!)