Good morning! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if Black Friday is your thing — I hope you’ve had a great time yesterday, whether that’s out at the shops or at home in your PJ’s.
This has been a busy, sort of wild week over here, and I’m excited to share all about it! I’ve had to keep a few things under wraps this week, and now it’s time to spill.
I started the week in Maryland, exploring a small town called Frederick, described to me as a bedroom community for DC.
Bedroom communities around major cities are interesting: it’s the charm of small towns, with the influx of money from large cities. Much like earlier questions of rural gentrification, their growth and spread over the past decade add another layer to economic realities across the United States.
It was then off to Front Royal, Virginia — a small town just off the Appalachian Trail. Here, I stayed in the sweetest AirBNB.
And explored a small town filled with friendly shop owners and small businesses. This town has experienced massive growth in the past five years — partially from a lean into tourism, and partially because of the spread of DC. (There are a number of people who commute into the city ~75 min away several days a week.)
My visit was short, but very sweet — it’s one I’d definitely like to devote more time to!
But, I had some place to go for the holiday.
Namely…
WISCONSIN!!!!
A few weeks ago, my dad and I conspired on a grand surprise to fly me home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Over the course of a weekend, I managed to surprise my mom, grandma, siblings, aunts AND cousins.
It was so amazing to be able to come home and spend a few days with my family — I am so grateful.
After a fair amount of screaming (and some happy tears), my mom and I set about making a list of all of the Christmas cookies she’ll bake over the coming weeks.
We pull most of our recipes from the We Energies holiday cookbooks, a cookbook released by the local energy company every year since 1928. In my family, we have books and recipes dating back to the ’40s!
On Wednesday, I sorted through old toys and memory boxes in the morning and surprised my grandma and sister that night. Two of my best friends stopped by to share in the fun.
Puppy chow was even made, in honor of being all together.
And Thanksgiving? It was magic. Simply magic.
I come from a large Catholic family, so holidays tend to stretch over multiple days as we all gather and celebrate with specific traditions.
For Thanksgiving, that means celebrating over a big meal with plenty of wine and lots of pie.
This will always be the appropriate whip cream to pie ratio.
Friday, some of the cousins get together at a early, early hour to do Black Friday shopping — carrying on a tradition that our grandmas felt very strongly about back in the day.
These days, it more about the bonding and time together, than anything else.
Then, Friday afternoon, we gathering with my mom’s side of the family to cut down Christmas trees at a farm out in the country. This year, though, the trees were rather disappointing — so precut trees were necessary.
But don’t worry — Coronas (a long-time tradition) were still had.
After all the trees have been hunted, we gather at my aunt’s house for dinner and wine and (more) time together.
Which brings us to today — Saturday. This one started early in the morning, when we got up to start baking Christmas cookies. It’s another all-family, all-day extravaganza, where we get a headstart on baking those traditional recipes we all love so much.
Many Christmas sweaters are worn.
Lots of Christmas cookies are sampled.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But now, it’s back to the open road for a few weeks before the official holiday. I’m heading back to the East Coast refreshed and grateful, with a full, full heart.
What a wonderful week.
