I’ve needed this week to kind of reboot a little and shift gears from fall/Halloween to HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL THE THINGS TO DO!!!

But October was pretty great. Mild weather, a great party, a killer homemade Halloween costume for H. I got TWO new chunky turtleneck sweaters, which means prepare to see those two sweaters in constant rotation until March. I do not play around when it comes to turtleneck season.

Some of my blazers from 10 years ago are starting to come back around to what the cool kids wear. But every time I wear my brown leather blazer (bottom row, second from the right) I feel incredibly Jersey. I can’t decide if this is good or bad, because some days it just makes me feel like I should be in waste management. I’m happy to see you again, though, tweed blazer.

And H popped into one of these photos this month to say hi, can you see her?

October was the start of her equine therapy, her party, her epic costume. I’ve been trying to get back into writing mode after getting through September’s back to school stretch. I’ve also been trying to plan early for the holidays this year. By Halloween I’d already booked our Santa train tickets and figured out NYE plans. This never happens to me, because I’ve only recently learned that people actually plan that far in advance. And I was too late for some of the Santra train tickets. Next year I apparently need to start in July.

Now it’s November 5th. One set of in-laws are coming for a visit the week before Thanksgiving, and my other set of in-laws are coming for Christmas and New Year’s. So, now it’s time to start menu planning, present planning, activity planning. All wonderful plannings, but it’s such a busy time that if I don’t stay organized I’m just in a blind panic. I’ve got one turkey ordered (I’ll be doing Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner this year); they said it was too early to order for Christmas. I’ve watched Elf once and Love Actually twice already. This is a very good sign of all kinds of festive happiness to come.