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Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it's time to officially cross the bridge into the Christmas season. But before we do, Jay has some final thoughts about Thanksgiving and our time with family! Please take a few minutes and watch today's vlog post, Post Thanksgiving Thoughts.
We all have difficult, challenging, or hard times in our lives. The important thing to remember is that we are not alone. There is a God who knows you, who loves you, and who is with you. And, he wants to have a relationship with you!
The question is, are you willing to give him a chance? - the higham family 
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Hello Monday. Actually, it's the Monday before Thanksgiving. It's an exciting week. The kids are already on break. Amy is busy making cookies. It's a short work week. Offices are closed Thursday and Friday. And we're going to spend the majority of this week with family.
It's going to be a good week. Turkey. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Cranberries. dinner rolls. Pumpkin pie. Yep, we'll have the whole spread. But there will also be a parade, a visit to dad's graveside, some shopping, and plenty of time story telling, laughing, and reminiscing. We really do have much to be thankful for.
To get this week started we wanted to share a song with you, and we hope it encourages you as you prepare for Thanksgiving day. David Crowder, released a new Christmas album called, Milk and Cookies, earlier this month. The single, Thanks Giver, was released just last week. Our son Logan alerted us to the song. We love it.
With everything going on in this world, in our lives, this songs spoke right to our hearts. God is still God, and he loves us. He is providing for us. Showing us every day that he is moving in our lives.
Take a few minutes and watch the video.
We want to encourage you, as you get ready for your Thanksgiving celebrations, to listen to this song and take a few minutes to think about the simple things that bring joy into your life. Reflect on how God has been moving in your life, and take the time to be a Thanks Giver.
Happy Thanksgiving! - the higham family 
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It's our favorite time of the year, and we are finally jumping into the holiday spirit!
Time to start the decorating!
We love the holiday season. Thanksgiving. Christmas. New Years. It really is one of our most favorite time of the year! It's become a a bit of a family tradition to share our holiday season with you! So once again, we are planning on sharing our holidays. From the decorating to the food to the fun, we will post, vlog, and share as much as possible.
So be sure to follow us here on the blog, on our YouTube channel, and on our social media. You can use the links below to follow, like, and subscribe!
- the higham family 
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* THIS POST CONTAINS BOTH AFFILIATE AND PRODUCT LINKS,
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also in the kitchen helping, but most of the work fell to Amy. Now that might have been okay, but as you know, we had 5 kiddos. That's a lot of work.
But somewhere around 2014, Amy had an idea. After years of doing most of the work, Amy suggested that we start having the kids help with the meal. She would ask each kid what their favorite dish of the meal was, then have them help prepare that dish. It was a brilliant idea. Not only did Amy get some help in the kitchen, but she got to spend some 1-on-1 time with each kid as they learned how to prepare their favorite dish.
But when you're learning how to cook your favorite dish with the person who makes your favorite dish, there's no need to "get the recipe," you already know it. Down the road, when we gather for our family Thanksgivings, our hope is that the work of preparing dinner might be spread out as each kid (and their family) arrives to dinner bearing their favorite dish.
3. More time with the kids, less time in the kitchen.
We enjoy spending time with our kids, especially around the holidays. We actually look forward, and even plan, for how we spend our time together. That wasn't possible when we would spend all day in the kitchen. In fact, it drove Amy a little crazy. She would work like mad to get dinner ready, while the kids did whatever they wanted. By the time dinner was over, she was exhausted and missed out on the fun of the day. But when we cook together, it reduces the time spent alone in the kitchen and allow us to spent more time with the kids.
[ affiliate links ] 4. Making it about family and time as a family.
A number of years ago, reality set in; our kids were growing up! Shocking, I know. But as our kids started becoming teenagers, we began to realize we were running out of time with our kids. If we weren't careful, our kids wouldn't be kids, they were going to be adults. So we decided to be more intentional with how we spend time with our kids. Naturally, the holidays became a focal point of how we spent our time together. We didn't want to see our kids scattering throughout the house on the holidays. Instead, we wanted to see them interacting with each other and with us.
Having the kids help in the kitchen gave us more time to be intentional. But it wasn't just as they helped in the kitchen. No, we found that we now had more to do things as a family. Last year, because the kids had helped prepare the dinner dishes, we had a couple of hours before dinner. So we got online and found some Minute To Win It style games that we could play with our kids. It was awesome! We played the games, laughed, and created all new memories together. You can check out our games by watching our 2020 Thanksgiving Family Special! We had so much fun, we're planning on playing some new family games this year! What we learned was that we can set aside this time for something more than just football, TV, parades, food, and hours spent in the kitchen. Thanksgiving, and all other holidays, were opportunities to really connect as a family. All it took was recognizing that we wanted more time as a family. 5. Preparing ahead of time is super important!
As you can imagine, preparing a meal for 7 takes a bit of time. But one of the biggest secrets to making our day special is taking the time to plan ahead. Because we wanted more family time, we start thinking about how we might be able to prepare some of our dinner dishes in advance, instead of waiting to do everything on Thanksgiving.
Now this might not be the newest idea, but when we started preparing some dishes a day or two in advance, we found that we had more time to do family things. Things like our mashed potato casserole, or our layered jello, or the green bean casserole could all be made a day in advance. So that's what we did.
Amy worked with our kids, and the dishes that could be made early, we made early. Some of the items just needed to be heated up, while others needed the proper time to cook. But it was a tremendous time saver to have a number of our dishes ready to go prior to the big day. And we would say, it is worth it if you can plan ahead!
With Thanksgiving still a couple of weeks away, why not think about how you might be able to involve your kids in the preparations of the day. Or, maybe you are already doing so. If you are, tell us about it. Leave a comment below and share how you make your Thanksgiving day something the whole family can participate in and enjoy!
And as always, thanks for visiting! - the higham family 
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Thanks for taking the time to read The Higham Family Blog. Each week we try to share new content about something we are learning, something we love, or something to offer encouragement to the family. We love to hear from our readers, so please share your thought in the comment section of each post.
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