A storm blew in yesterday after we had mild weather for for the past two weeks, and it’s still snowing. I am so happy I caught these pictures of my neighbors’ cheery housefront decor and decorative kale before the storm hit! I aspire to someday have such a welcoming look for my home! We’ve had a fire the past two nights to motivate the kids to get their evening chores done. I love being cozy together and reading stories with the fire crackling and popping.

Here’s a free pdf of homeschool family traditions for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Here are three darling read aloud stories for you and your children to enjoy on these dark cold nights: We read chapter 1 of two of them on Thursday night. I am looking forward to enjoying the rest of the stories!

We read the first chapter and so far it so charming. Brings back my own memories of going to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving. You can get it in ebook or audio file here.

This comes from Louisa May Alcott from her collection of short stories called Aunt Jo’s Scrapbag. You can find the picture book from the library, or listen to the audio file or get the ebook here.

I feel drawn to this book in the winter and a few times we’ve listened to the first chapter several times when we’ve gathered on homeschool morning to fold the clean laundry. For some reason we haven’t moved past the first chapter. The cheery scene of schoolchildren “coasting” on a hill of snow always warms my heart. This winter I think we will listen to the rest. Listen to it or read aloud here. I don’t know if it talks about Thanksgiving, but it does refer to Christmas.