Thanksgiving the Second

We had our little "family" Thanksgiving lunch today. Everything turned out great, if I do say so myself! And even though I halved the big recipes, we still have enough leftovers to eat off of for at least 3 days! Dave already left for work, and I am thinking about eating a little snack in a minute. ;) Hayden is down for a nap, so I will watch some sappy Christmas movies on TV and relax. Maybe I can work on a few more Christmas decorations after he gets up and he can play outside since it's so nice and warm!

P.S. We actually didn't stay at home tonight! Dave was covering the Macy's Christmas tree lighting at Lenox Square Mall, so we hopped on the interstate and joined him. Jewel performed, along with some other people that I hadn't really heard of, but who were equally as good. When they lit the Christmas tree, they had a ton of fireworks, which rivaled our little town's fourth of July set! Jann Carl from E.T. was there as the host, so I got a quick pic with her when it was over. I wanted to try to get a pic with Jewel, but she disappeared quickly every time she left the stage. Sneaky girl...

Overall, we had a great Thanksgiving all alone in Georgia. I'm glad Hayden and I mustered up the energy to head downtown. I'm always wanting us to "do" more, and tonight I felt like we did!

Thanksgiving the First

We went to Muscle Shoals this past weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Foote Family and November birthdays (Gwen, Brandon, and Dave). We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, followed with leftovers on Sunday. Dave and I went on a date to see Twilight on Sunday, which I have to say I was a little disappointed with. I still liked it just b/c it was a movie based on that particular book, but I felt like they could have done a better job with it. There's always the sequels!

This Thursday, I will be cooking a small Thanksgiving lunch for the three of us. I'm a little nervous about getting the dressing right b/c I've never done it before. That's what we have grandmothers for!!! I will not be cooking a turkey b/c we don't really like it that much and it will be easier to have chicken for just us anyway. I will round out the meal with veggie casserole, mashed potatoes, and a pumpkin pie. Hopefully Dave won't be too lethargic at work. Saturday we will head over to the 'Ham to spend some time with Dave's family for his birthday and Thanksgiving, and hopefully get some good visiting time in with all of them.

I'll leave you with some pictures. First is one of the Christmas tree. I will hopefully have the outside and the rest of the inside finished by the end of this week so I can post more pictures. The next 2 are Carson and Hayden at my mom's house all ready for Santa, but not ready to take pictures together!

Skipping ahead...

Yes, I admit it. I am one of those crazy people that puts my Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. We have such a weird holiday schedule with Dave working in the TV biz, that it's difficult for me to wait until the day or weekend after Turkey day to put up the tree. We're usually out of town, and this year is no different. So, we put up the tree this past weekend, and I'm working on getting the limbs unfolded and some of the lights replaced. I hope to start putting on ornaments tonight, so that I can post a pic this week. I also want to take our Christmas picture in front of it one day this week! Never too early to start planning Christmas cards!!!

So, come along with me and skip ahead this year. I promise it won't hurt a bit!

Nostalgia...

My mom was feeling nostalgic this past Sunday, so she and my dad rode up to Tennessee to where she grew up. My mom's old house burned down many years ago, but our Aunt Mag's house is still standing. It was unreal to see the pictures and to remember how it used to be. I remember going there a lot up until high school, for family reunions or just to visit. Mag died around 10 years ago, but her spirit still seems to be there and I know I'll never remember the house without remembering her in it.

Gatlinburg...Finally!

For those who don't know, 2 weeks ago we spent a week in the smoky mountains with my parents. We stayed in a camping cabin in a campground...which was interesting, to say the least. There was no bathroom in the cabin, so we had to walk to the bathhouse for all of our showering and bodily functions. Hmmmm....So it was really like staying in a very hard tent. Ha! We enjoyed it, though, b/c we were in the same campground where my parent's had their 5th wheel trailer. We could walk back and forth and cook and Hayden rode his bicycle all over the place. (Don't ask me how we fit it in our car.) We even had a campfire a couple of nights. We went to Dollywood (where I dropped my cell phone off of an awesome roller coaster and it still works!), a magic show (where I ended up on stage for one of the tricks...I still don't know how he did that), the Wax Museum (where I had to hold Dave back so he wouldn't grope the female wax figures..ha), the Christmas place (where we got our ornaments for this year), and Ober Gatlinburg (where Dave and Hayden went alpine sliding). We also walked around quite a bit in Gatlinburg. We went to the Wild Plum Tea Room and had a great lunch, and then drove out to an apple orchard the day before we left. Overall, it was great and we were worn out! Dave complained that he needed a vacation to get over the vacation, but I still think he had a good time!