Our Elves {Max & Millie and their pet, Cubby} made their 2020 Christmas season appearance on December 1st. They brought Mason all the things needed for a North Pole style breakfast and brought him a Funko Harry Potter Pop Advent calendar! Mason was so excited to see his favorites!!
Hands down, the Christmas season is my absolute favorite!! With that being said, this post serves no purpose other than to publish some of the photos I took over the season! I love the coziness of the Christmas decorations and the twinkle lights. And, enjoying a nice cup of coffee by the glow of the Christmas tree is my absolute favorite.
We finally broke down and bought Nate a new truck. He's been needing one for quite a while, but we wanted to take our time and do our research on what we truly wanted. We knew that we needed something that would be able to tow our Jeeps, was a diesel, was roomy and comfortable for travelling. We finally settled on the 2020 Ram 2500.
If you've been around this blog for a while then you know that the Polar Express is an annual tradition in our family! We love making a weekend out of it and camping and doing all things Christmas. Like I said in the Grinch post, it was a little different this year but we still made the most of it.
I'm sure it goes without saying {this is 2020 afterall}, but our trip to visit the Grinch's Lair looked a little different this year. We had to purchase tickets in advance as they were only letting so many people in at a time. We had 11 in our group so we were basically in there by ourselves. They checked our temperatures at the door and everyone had to wear masks. Also, the Grinch stayed stationary this year instead of running around the lair. Even with this, we had a great time visiting our favorite Grinch's Lair.
On one of our days in Tennessee, we spent time exploring the area. Visiting Reelfoot lake was always a staple for us when in the area, so we had to introduce the newest members of our family to it. They have a nature center, a boardwalk, a gift shop, etc. We used to love coming here as kids!
Part two of our Thanksgiving was spent in Tennessee visiting my dad's side of the family! My Grandparents (dad's parents) live in a tiny town in the northwestern corner of Tennessee. It's a little over a 9-hour drive for us, but certainly not a bad drive. When my siblings and I were younger we used to go a couple times a year to visit, but now that we all have families of our own it's harder to get up there that often. Before last week, it had been 5 years since we've been to TN. That's way too long if you ask me!
Let me preface this by saying our Thanksgiving this year was just amazing!!! We got to spend time with both my mom's side and my dad's side of the family. It's been YEARS since that has happened. The core of my mom's side of the family is here local, but my dad's side is pretty spread out across the globe! While we were missing several, we did enjoy the time we got to spend with those that were able to make it! We just missed Thanksgiving with the Hall side. We missed them terribly! It's so hard to be with everyone during the holidays.
Our first Thanksgiving was spent with my mom's side of the family on Sunday, November 22nd. We all gathered at my aunt's house for a fabulous feast and amazing fellowship! My dad gathered everyone for a family photo...
It's that time...time for the Currently link-up with Anne in Residence. I've failed at keeping up with the blog once again, but tis' is life at the moment! This month we are sharing what we are currently baking, decorating, gifting, hoping, sending.
Joining in with Anne in Residence for her "Currently" series. Today we are sharing what we are currently appreciating, ordering, perfecting, planning, and wearing.
For the last three years, Mason and I have visited this cute little pumpkin patch in Midlothian, TX. It's put on by a church there in town. We found it because it's right next door to Nathan's Grandmother's assisted living facility. We love supporting the church! And, they always have the cutest little photo ops around the patch. Plus, it's a sweet little tradition shared by just Mason and me.
Long before Covid hit, we had decided to homeschool Mason for the 2020/2021 school year. It's something we have talked about and prayed about for years and we felt that it was a good time to do so. To be honest, Mason was being held back in his current district. He knew the content and thus was getting very bored in class. Because he was bored, he would start talking and land himself in trouble every day (or so it seemed). Also, there were some changes happening in his district for the next school year, and that helped make our decision even that much easier!
Back on October 15th, we had our annual Hocus Pocus movie night! We decided to do it on a Thursday evening because we were going out of town the next day. I love this little tradition of ours something fierce! And Mason loves it maybe even more than me.
The temps here in Texas have been glorious and it's actually starting to really feel like fall. I couldn't love it more if I tried. Fall is my most favorite time of the year and I get so happy and so giddy. I am obsessed with fall weather, fall clothes, fall scents, fall foods, fall festivities, fall traditions, topless rides in the Jeep, fall crafting, etc. September 22nd may have been the actual first day of fall, but my heart was in fall mode after school started (Sept 8). Here's a look at our Fall 2020 Bucketlist.
Still playing catch-up here. Back on the weekend of August 7th, we went to visit some of our best friends down in Del Rio, TX. I took off on Friday and Nate was off, so we left super early that morning. We wanted to get there as early as possible to have as much time as we could with them.
Back on August 5th we attended a Jeep meet with our local Jeep club. We went to a local BBQ place that just turned over new members. They also have a new menu and did some upgrades to the place. It was neat to see all the new details of Bluebonnet.
Back on August 1st one of our favorite Jeep groups had a weekend at the lake. We weren't able to camp with the group, so we just went out for one evening.
Hey y'all! It's been 47 days since I last visited this space! I have so much to catch up on. I thought I would come back with the "Currently" post I missed this month. I'll include a little life update below.
What did we do before the Target dollar spot (or Amazon)? I always find the cutest pieces there. I think I missed the best time to go for fall & Halloween things this year, but still managed to snag a few adorable things.
On our way home from Moab we decided to drive Ophir Pass! We were getting back into Colorado at Sunset and got to watch the sunset over the mountains. It was pure magic!!
On day three of our Colorado trip, we found ourselves driving 3 hours to Moab, Utah! We couldn't fathom the thought of being that close to Moab and not spending at least 1 day there! For you non-Jeepers out there, this is off-roading heaven!! So many awesome trails. The adrenaline rush on the way there was just about enough to send me over the edge! I couldn't believe we were actually going to Moab after so many years of talking and dreaming about it!
After we walked around Telluride for a bit, we headed to Imogene Pass. This trailhead begins in Telluride and ends in Ouray, CO. It was really neat getting to this trailhead...it's literally right behind a neighborhood in Telluride. As you're climbing up the trail you can see the whole town of Telluride below and if you look across you can see the switchbacks on Black Bear Pass. It was crazy to see a different perspective on the trail we just conquered!!
On day 2 of our Colorado trip, we woke up bright and early to hit up Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass. We wanted to be able to conquer both of those trails in one day, so an early morning it was. It was fine by me though, we got to see the sunrise over the mountains! It was such a beautiful drive to the trailhead.
We began our drive to Colorado on Monday evening (August 17th). We drove a little over 4 hours and then got a hotel for the evening. We wanted to get a jump on the drive so that we had more time to spend in Colorado!! We drove the rest of the way on Tuesday, August 18th, and got into Durango around 3:30 pm.
Much like most of our trips, we decided last minute to head to Colorado for a week. I had already taken off work for a Jeep event (that we later decided we didn't want to go to), Nate had some time off, and Mason's new homeschool start date got pushed back, so we decided we wanted to take a trip somewhere. I mentioned Colorado, of course. I have been wanting to go back to CO for the longest time. Nate mentioned asking some of our friends if they wanted to go and the rest is pretty much history! It really was just a matter of perfect timing for all of us!
Friday night around 10 pm we got a wild hair and planned a trip to the Texas Hill Country for....the very next morning!! Lucky for us, we have some pretty awesome friends that are just as spontaneous as us and said "absolutely" to our crazy plans! We were talking about planning an event for a group that Nate and I started {Jeep Around Texas} and wanted to make a pre-run to plan it all out. Our admins and great friends Michael & Keri, and Freddie joined us on this trip and we are so thankful that they did! We had a blast!!
Hi!! I am Crystal. Daughter of the One True King, wife to my high-school sweetheart Nathan and Mama to a 13 year old boy named Mason. We're the Halls and we love to travel around Texas {or anywhere, really}. I blog about our daily life, traveling, DIY'ing, and everything in between. Welcome and thank you for stopping by!
