Hello! A little late to the musings game, but it’s been an intense month or so over here!

October was filled with work trips, pumping in airports and missing my baby. I spent the first two weeks of October traveling to St. Paul, Minnesota and Los Angeles, California for work. We also went to New Hampshire with our friends and their kids and enjoyed a weekend away. Then, it was Halloween and getting Nora ready for her first week at daycare!

Nora started daycare the first week of November … and … well … caught hand foot and mouth. We spent the week of my 30th birthday in the nursery, holding our screaming baby and cursing the daycare gods. BUT, we are all better now and our little one is back at daycare loving life!

30, flirty, and surviving

I celebrated my 30th birthday last week, receiving a giant bouquet of flowers from my sister-in-law, cupcakes from my cousin, and other packages and warm wishes in the mail and over the internet. Ian and I went out to dinner and I got two glasses of prosecco and we ate a 6-course meal. It was *chef’s kiss*.

That weekend, Ian surprised me with a visit from my best friend who moved to the West Coast last year. I did not see that coming (cue sobs). We spent the day eating and laughing and watching Gilmore girls with a still sick baby, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. On Saturday, we hosted about 30 people at our house (cue more sobs) for a birthday party. It was a blast, and I really felt the love.

People ask me if I am excited or nervous about my 30s. I’d have to say that while my 20s were the most formative years of my life, they were also the most awkward and uncertain. I have grown a lot in the past year, becoming a mom and taking steps to improve my mental health, so I think my 30s will be the best years yet.

What’s up for the rest of November

There’s really not a lot of time left! This weekend we are attending a Thanksgiving party with our realtor group (insert nerd emoji), and then next week I am taking some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, the day after Thanksgiving … it’s tree time! We found this perfect tree farm last year, and learned that all of their trees sell out the day after Thanksgiving. So, twist my arm! Starting a week from now, our house will be all Christmas! Hooray! Then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, our town hosts a Stars Hollow-esque Christmas celebration. They close main street for walking traffic and you can listen to carolers, eat piping hot soup, look at gingerbread houses, be merry, you name it. We are SO excited!

Plans for December

December is, expectedly, filled with TONS of fun stuff. The first weekend of December is a work holiday party, a trip to Newport with my hometown friends to celebrate our 30s, and cookies on Sunday. The following weekend I am hosting our book club group and an additional small group of friends on Saturday. Then sprinkled in-between we have Christmas shopping, cookie baking, holiday movies, and so much more. I love this time of year, but it goes by so darn fast!

What I read in October and (so far) in November

• Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (And More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab
• Carrie Sotto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

What I’m reading

• Babel by R.F. Kuang
• The Winners by Fredrik Backman
• Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes

What I’m listening to

• Have I Told You This Already? Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham
• Christmas music (duh)
• Goose
• Midnights (3 am version)

What I’m watching

• The Crown
• Rings of Power
• Gilmore girls
• Christmas movies