It’s the most wonderful time of year! The next four months, affectionately referred to as the “‘ber months,” are hands down my favorite months of the year. They are some of the prettiest months, the most festive months, and they can be the most intentional months of family time if we spend them well. Since I have one son in college, one in preschool, and one in the middle of that, I’ve had lots of ‘ber months as a mom already and I still have plenty to go.
Here are some ways that our family celebrates the ‘ber months:
September
The first ‘ber month usually comes in strong with what my kids refer to as “fake fall.” We get a taste of cooler mornings; blankets get dragged into the car for school drop-off; we foolishly wear some of our favorite fall clothes only to be sweating by the afternoon; and we dream of all the things to come in the next four months. We know that the last bit of summer is still lurking around the corner and Mother Nature will hit us with a few more days of heat before the official crispness arrives, but we are here in our minds.
September in our family means VOL football. One of my husband’s favorite traditions is to throw a little get together for the first UT football game. We scramble to clean our screened in porch (it has gotten messy over the summer with water tables and bubble guns), invite a few families over, and just enjoy watching the game outside (with the fans going). It’s always our first taste of fall with all things orange and white. We are charcuterie board people, and we usually lean towards a massive board along with some chips and dip because what is a party without chips and dip. Simple, delicious snacks while Rocky Top plays in the background. What a month.
October
By far my favorite ‘ber month, the Halloween Queen in me starts itching around mid-September and the decorations in my home start slowly transforming from fall to festively spooky. It’s pumpkin patch time, Halloween costume time, and witches’ hats on the front porch time, and I love every bit of it. One of the first things I like to do in October is to surprise my kids with a little after school treat about halfway through the month. I buy fake pumpkins (think the Styrofoam kind), tons of spooky stickers, make a small Halloween treat, and meet them on the back porch after school. They come home to the surprise of being able to decorate a pumpkin on an otherwise normal Tuesday afternoon and I’m left with all the festive mom feelings (and usually some pretty cute pumpkins that won’t rot on the front porch).
This month culminates with Halloween and the nostalgia that I get on Halloween night is simply unmatched. Seeing our whole neighborhood out trick-or-treating, carrying some warm adult beverages as we follow behind our kids, and enjoying the one night a year where there’s not a hard limit on candy consumption is just the cherry…or pumpkin…on top.
November
This month is all things friends for our family. We spend Thanksgiving with our extended family every other year, so on those odd years, we are left with “just us” and we choose to focus on friends. Having a “Friendsgiving” has become a favorite of ours. Have you ever realized how many families don’t go anywhere for Thanksgiving or don’t have extended family come to town? There are so many families who celebrate right here in Knoxville. Why not get together with some of them? They say the more the merrier and no time rings truer for that than Thanksgiving. The combinations of families can really bring out the creativity in your meal as well. I’m from the south and I look forward to sharing some of my staple Thanksgiving dishes with our friends, but I am equally excited to try some of the things that they ate in their childhood around the Thanksgiving table. Think about the First Thanksgiving. A hodge-podge group of people sitting around a table eating random dishes based on what they had at the time and what they were good at preparing. That’s exactly what Thanksgiving should be! If you don’t have plans this year, try hosting a culturally diverse Friendsgiving. I guarantee you will find a new favorite dish to make again in December.
December
The ultimate ‘ber month. This is it. This month culminates the ‘ber months and culminates the whole year. The Christmas lovers are hard core. Those trees start going up the day after Halloween and I can appreciate it! There are so many traditions at Christmas time and so many different ways that people celebrate.
One of my favorite traditions lasts the whole month. I start by writing 25 different activities on little slips of paper. Some of them are big and some are very simple and require little planning/effort. I map out our month. When can we do the bigger ones? What days do we need to stick to simple home-based activities? Each morning, the kids run down the stairs to open the advent stocking and read the activity for the day. Maybe we are going elf hunting, maybe we are making Christmas cookies, or maybe we are simply writing Christmas cards for our family and friends while drinking hot chocolate. It doesn’t have to be big. The point is that every day of December is a celebration in its own right. Bonus: there are NO arguments from my kids waking up every morning in December. Yes, the Elf on the Shelf is a part of that, but it is secondary now to seeing our activity for the day. This tradition also requires me to be organized for the month, and I find that our time is intentional and better spent as a family instead of just winging it like we do every other month.
So, there you have it and here we are! The most wonderful time of the year is upon us and we are so lucky to have these beautiful months and memories that lie ahead. Enjoy every moment. Give yourself something to reflect on when January comes and we are all (hopefully) snowed in.
