I’m sure many share my sentiment when I say, how is it already December?! Oh what a year it has been. Twelve months ago, we had no idea what was in store for 2020. I was 6 months pregnant, we were just starting on our downstairs renovations and coming off of Thanksgiving with my family / getting ready to go to Toronto to spend Christmas with Mike’s family. I remember I had a bad case of sciatica from pregnancy, generally felt pretty tired every day going into my 3rd trimester, and kind of overwhelmed with traveling and all of the work on the house we had to do. The holidays were a blur, honestly. If I only knew about the slower (scarier) pace of life that was about to hit us…

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the sentiments behind giving thanks and a big meal shared with others. (Christmas on the other hand? I’ve been known to dislike the cheesy music and, to be frank, the forced giving that December 25th brings; although, having Cam does seem to be changing my Grinch-y heart.)

Obviously Thanksgiving looked different this year. COVID – and therefore, the sad but undisputed decision to be socially responsible – pruned down our typical dinner guest-list of 15 and canceled travel plans altogether.

Instead of a big family meal on Thanksgiving Day proper with my stepdad’s family and then a weekend visit from my grandparents for the rest of the holiday weekend, we kept it low key and limited it to our “social bubble.” To keep things extra simple, we ordered catering from Whole Foods to just heat up and serve.

The food was pretty good but of course we had leftovers. Since it was just me and Mike who would be eating them, I decided to throw it all together with some chopped onion and vegetable broth for a Thanksgiving Leftover Soup. We used the remaining turkey meat, a chopped sweet potato, and some green beans, but this is versatile. I can imagine it being served with potatoes that you didn’t use all of for mashing, or with a side of day-old crusty bread. You can add a salad to round it out, or go full on and eat a huge bowl of leftover stuffing and gravy like I did.

There are a lot of options in making this Thanksgiving Leftover Soup and, honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t tried it before. Plus, we ate it cozied up next to the fire with a view our Christmas tree; which is a nice way to spend an afternoon. It was also so fun to wake up on Friday and put out our Christmas decorations as a little fam of 3. 🙂

Between making leftover soup and a few house projects (yes, we are lightweight still renovating), we grabbed chai tea lattes and took Cam to a nearby track for walks. We ordered matching family jams and 3 stockings for the mantel; as Christmas will also be on a much smaller scale and spent at home in California, instead of in Canada with Mike’s family.

It’s sad we don’t get to see the people we love. But it’s overwhelming happy that we have our little guy to celebrate with. It was so fun having him run around the house in his little walker. He had on a cute little turkey outfit that my mom bought him and loved playing with the feet, which had “feathers” on them. His face was a mix of confusion and glee, like there seems to be a toy on my foot and I don’t know why it’s there… but I like it.

Like the rest of the world, we’re hoping we’ll be with family next year during the holidays. Until then, we’re staying home and loving endless Cam cuddles.

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