Simple Joys of the Month: November, 2024

We've reached the end of the line—er, the end of the year.

Dec 03, 2024

Raise your hand if you’re tired! Yeah, me too. At least one person in our household has been sick for what feels like months (but has been weeks?) and now it’s December 3rd and PHEW. I know you all get it.

I always share this old comic to IG at the beginning of December because I feel it EVERY DAMN YEAR—

And I love the holidays! I really do! But it’s a lot. No matter how much I try to scale back—which I always do—it’s still always too much.

So, just like I did in August, I’m changing it up a bit for November’s “Simple Joys of the Month” because it was such a full month and there were just too many simple joys to pick one in each category.

Thus, here’s a bulleted list of some of the simple, sensory pleasures that I enjoyed last month + some additional categories just for fun…

Simple Joys of the Month:

Getting our Christmas tree! We got our tree on Sunday but it currently looks like the tree above because we haven’t decorated it yet* (except the few ornaments the kids HAD to put on it the second we brought it in the house). That being said, if I didn’t put the lights on the tree, bring out all of the ornaments, and force everyone to decorate it with me, it would most definitely stay just like this for the rest of December (or forever?). Why? Because moms are the makers of all holiday magic. But you already know this.

*I wrote this yesterday and then we ended up decorating the tree last night; it was great for the first 20 mins or so and then the kids started being rough with the fragile ornaments/fighting over ornaments and it devolved, as it does, and then there was yelling and crying and YOU KNOW. But the tree looks great now! Ha ha ha SOB.
Watching all 3 seasons of The Bear: I’m late to this show but finally watched it over the past month (or two or three?) and LOVED it. Just like everyone said I would.
This heated throw blanket that I finally got for myself and have used every day since buying it because I am ALWAYS cold when working. Just asked for a bigger one for my side of the bed for xmas because yes, I am a 90-year old woman and New England winters are COLD.
Speaking of New England winters, I’ve been listening to Noah Kahan Live at Fenway Park all month. Something about the leaves falling from the trees and the cool air (and maybe election-related depression?) made me want to listen to Noah Kahan nonstop. And this album is fun because it feels like you’re at one of his concerts when really you’re just working at your desk while covered in a heated blanket and blowing your nose.
Yasso Greek Yogurt Bars: The kids and I are obsessed with these bars. I like to pretend they’re the same as eating regular Greek Yogurt (and thus, SUPER healthy!) and am partial to the mint chocolate chip ones because they’re a perfect palette cleanser after dinner ;)
Consignment sale shopping: GOSH I LOVE A GOOD CONSIGNMENT SALE. I went to two big consignment events in November—one for women and one for kids—and got so much great, gently-used stuff at each. The best.
These 3D Christmas glasses that turn twinkle lights (and candle flames) into fun shapes when you wear them. A family member brought them to Thanksgiving for the kids and we all passed them around all night. They’d make a great stocking stuffer or party favor!
Moana 2 : We went to see Moana 2 on Friday!! We’re big Moana fans in our household and it definitely lived up to the hype (Teddy’s hype, to be clear). We must have watched the trailer 25 times before we went to see it so we were ready.
Ursa Major Golden Hour Recovery Cream: Got myself this cream that I’ve been stalking online for a while now and so far, I’m a fan (It’s made in VT! Is this the accidental New England edition of SJOTM?). Putting it on every day feels so luxurious. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased any skin care product that costs this much (I’ve always been pretty low-maintenance—aka CHEAP—when it comes to skin care), but I decided that because I’m almost 40, it’s time to level up (aka SPEND MORE) on my skin. So I bought one jar of cream. Baby steps.
Shrinky Dinks: The kids and I got few sheets of Shrinky Dinks on sale for $5 at Michaels last week and I cannot tell you how much fun we had with them. $5 for 4ish hours of entertainment and crafty joy? #MOMWIN.

(Obviously Thanksgiving + Thanksgiving food was a SJOTM, too, but that felt too obvious to include here…)

Simple Non-Joys [Un-Joys?] of the Month

The constant fighting!! All of the family time over Thanksgiving break led to SO. MUCH. FIGHTING between the kids. I almost lost it like 3673465319 times and DID lose it quite a few times, too (see also: the aforementioned Christmas Tree decorating family meltdown). A person can only be patient for so long.
THE ELECTION. Obviously. Enough said. I don’t want to talk about it right now (but I did talk about it earlier this month).
The consumerism of this season. Ugh. The kids can’t stop talking about all of the things they want and I love buying them gifts but also I don’t want to bring another piece of plastic into our house ever again and am so sick of STUFF and more STUFF. Bah humbug. But also, wait—did you say that coat I’ve been eyeing is on sale? ;)
Sick season. Like I already said, I’m super sick of everyone being sick. And I’m still not 100% and now Ben is sick and as everyone knows, sick husbands are A LOT.
Stepping on dinos and Legos and Cheerios and all of the crunchy, painful, and/or hard stuff that is always covering every square inch of our floor at all times.

Weird Little Joy of the Month

*I decided you needed to see the real image of this one instead of a drawing of it because can you see how happy it made me? Photo credit: Teddy (age 5)

This sloth stuffed animal that we found at a local toy store—shout-out to The Red Balloon Toy Shop! I was *this close* to buying it for myself but then I was like WTF ARE YOU THINKING DO NOT SPEND $60 ON A STUFFED ANIMAL FOR YOURSELF!!!! But snuggling it did bring me a whole lot o’ joy.

UPCOMING EVENTS/BIZ NEWS

A reminder that my book, Mama Needs a Minute, is now available for pre-order (and it’s on sale at both Bookshop.org and Amazon right now)! You can even buy it for someone as a holiday gift*; it will be such a fun surprise when it arrives on their doorstep on March 11th!

*If you do this and want me to make you an official little gift certificate to wrap up + give them as their gift, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to do so :)

Order on Bookshop.org

Order on Amazon

International Orders

Greeting card Sale in my shop! In order to scale back and downsize my life and my business ventures. I’ve decided to discontinue all of my greeting cards (it was SUCH a hard decision but it’s the right one!). The good news: you can enjoy 35% off of ALL of the greeting cards in my shop now through Dec. 24th (while supplies last). Use code HOLIDAYMAGICMAKER at checkout.

Shop All Cards Here