I had pumpkin spice in my eggnog

And I loved it.

We are having a bit of a mixed up holiday celebration at the MBC home. It's all the fault of last Sunday's snow day~ something about snow just yells Christmas. Q was mockingly singing that "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...and Thanksgiving isn't here yet!"

Well it did start out as a Thanksgiving-oriented sort of theme for the kids and I. LO and I started praying before our meals and Q started praying with her at night. And we went to the library's Thanksgiving event, which LO and Baby E both loved. LO was even called by the teacher, and she just loved being a helper! Not that she knew what to do.. haha! But she had lots of fun. I didn't take pictures of the events because Baby E was trying to explore and was seriously ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE but the Library's Facebook page put up some pics and there we are:

Can you see me back there with Baby E? LO is so independent these days! Here she is, one step ahead of the action! LOL

She was so attentive (most of the time) and followed directions perfectly. Such a good girl, my little one <3

We don't show as much in this picture but I still think it's a great pic of the process :)

And here is her art work:

She did SO WELL. I am so proud of her. She still remembers how to use glue, even though it's been a while since we practiced. We did lose a tail feather on the way to the car (boo).

We have also been reading books at home about the Thanksgiving holiday- though only about the family gathering part. No Native American-centered books at our library, I'm afraid. In all honestly, (and now that I've shared my cute pictures) I should say that I dislike the story in its popular Euro-centric form (a simplistic story about Plymouth pilgrims' survival thanks to the help of the Wampanoag) given that said settlers proceeded to nearly extinguish the tribes that were native to what is now called New England. In fact, as you may already know, the United American Indians of New England mourn on Thanksgiving day since the 70s. Those Native Americans who do celebrate, do so in a revisionist manner, by centering the celebration around the many contributions of Native Americans; and I too think this is the best way to celebrate it. In Mexico, for example, these conflicting perspectives around Colonialism have been the root of a similar (though in our case, official) editing of Columbus Day (October 12) which has become Dia de la Raza, a celebration highlighting our Mestizo race*

We do celebrate Thanksgiving in our family, though, as you have seen, because as I said before I believe the holiday is what one makes of it. In the end, I think that Thanksgiving today is about family, about being grateful for the blessings we have been awarded, and about giving back. And so we celebrate all this, and we spend time with our family, and (despite my little rant here) we don't hate on Turkey Day. Can't wait for Turkey Day.

That is not to say, however, that when it snowed on Sunday, this house did not feel the Christmas Spirit! We watched Christmas movies or listened to Christmas music, broke out the eggnog and out came the Christmas tree and all of our decorations. We have not put up our lights yet, but everything else is up :) It was lots of fun!

See that hand? I should have known he'd want to pull on the socks- we had to move them :P

And I'm serious about the eggnog. I totally put pumpkin spice in it. And it was delish.

* In 1918, philosopher Antonio Caso took October 12th as an opportunity to praise the "Mexican mestizo race", La Raza, the rich mixture of Spanish and indigenous cultures which characterizes us. He was perhaps the first to coin the term La Raza, which has now been adopted by Latinos from all across the continent. Ten years later, the Día de la Raza was declared an official national holiday by Congress, after only minor debate.
From here