I love love love Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving was filled with a nice long break complemented by my family and all of my closest friends who were back in town. I also survived hosting my first Thanksgiving. I have to say it went really well and was so much fun! All of my family came over, ate a huge lunch, then the kids played outside since the weather was perfect and the adults stayed in and played cards. We all enjoyed ourselves and had a great time together! I know my Mimi was watching down on us that day with a big smile (I even wore her thick cozy socks in her honor until I realized it was going to be so hot outside). We also spent another Thanksgiving at another grandmothers house with my Mom, David, Sister and family. I have to brag on her cooking! She makes all of my favorites, especially her hash brown casserole and baked macaroni and cheese. I am going to have to get her recipe for each in attempt to make them the way she does. I can't brag enough. I also had the best weekend celebrating with friends who are basically family. Thanksgiving is a time when we all get together and go out in our home town to reunite with everyone. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to be able to spend my holidays with. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break!
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Tomorrow is finally Thanksgiving and I cannot wait to EAT! The house is officially cleaned and ready to go for all of my family! Not only do we have our Thanksgiving tomorrow at my house, but then we will go with my other side of the family for Thanksgiving dinner. My excitement for food and family is a bit much, but when all my favorite foods are being served on the same day I can't help it. Not only will I see all my family over Thanksgiving but all of my friends will be back in town too. Tonight all of our friends are going out to celebrate!
P.S.-Don't forget to be thankful and thank God for all his blessings!! P.S.S.-With this being Thanksgiving week I have seen so many funny memes that I can't help but laugh. (I love memes, my coworker and I often go back and forward with who found the best ones of the day). My family and I have also been sending them to each other all week about the most hilarious ones we've found. Some of the memes I come across on a daily basis fit perfectly with life. I figured I would post a few to give some of yall with a good sense of humor a laugh. Friday was Bryan's birthday so we celebrated all weekend long! On Thursday we had dinner with our friends and then went to see the premier of Hunger Games. Since the first Hunger Games movie came out we have always made it a tradition to see the premier as a part of Bryan's birthday since he read all the books (we were not impressed with this last movie). On Friday we headed to Georgia to celebrate with his family. We were so excited to visit and see all of the family. We had a great time celebrating with an amazing dinner my in-laws made, Bryan's favorite (cheesecake) and we played one of Bryan's birthday gifts by the fire. For those of you who have never played Cards Against Humanity it is so much fun and I promise you will not stop laughing. I will warn..this is an adult card game with some pretty funny/crazy sayings. I actually laughed so hard that I had to have my sis-in-law Brittany read the cards out loud for me. Saturday we celebrated with Bryan's mom and our niece, while we were there we gave her some early birthday and Christmas presents! We heard she loves Elmo so one of our gifts to her was an Elmo who sings. She carried him around everywhere. Even that night and the next morning Bryan's mom sent us pictures of her cuddling and singing songs to him. She was the sweetest little girl while we visited and would not stop singing Happy Birthday to Uncle Bryan. She had us laughing and playing baby dolls with her the entire time.
This past weekend has officially got me in the holiday spirit. Christmas cards are ordered, the temperature has dropped, I am ready to get the fireplace in our house going, and decorate for Christmas! Since I am hosting Thanksgiving this year at my house I am waiting to put up Christmas decor on the day (morning) after our Thanksgiving celebration. On Saturday morning I headed to Gatlinburg to do some shopping with Bryan's family. It was an all girls trip so no time limit on our shopping! We shopped for almost ten hours straight, minus our quick lunch to Five Guys to refuel up our energy. We went to a jewelry/market show that comes once a year and got some amazing buys, then to the outlets to finish up some more shopping before they closed. I also managed to do a bit more Christmas shopping while I was there. I'm determined not to be that person shopping on Christmas Eve again like I was last year. On Sunday we went to one of my all time favorite stores in Gatlinburg, The Christmas Place. It is a store that has all things Christmas, it stays open year round but it's best to go now when it's close to Christmas because it will put anyone in the holiday spirit. Thankfully, when Bryan and I first got together his momma started an ornament tradition every year with ornaments from the Christmas Place that you can have personalized before you check out. I am so grateful his mom started this tradition to see how our family changes throughout the years . This year she purchased us one for our pup and a regular one for our yearly ornament. Sunday night our friends hosted an amazing "Friendsgiving" dinner. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it is where a bunch of friends get together for a Thanksgiving themed party, everyone makes a dish, you eat a wonderful meal, enjoy each others company, and play games. Bryan made his mom's stuffing recipe; we had some other fabulous foods consisting of ham, turkey, mac & cheese, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, asparagus, rolls, pies, and pumpkin crunch. Afterwards we all played Catch Phrase while the kiddos played together. There was some fun competition since we played girls vs. boys, even though the guys managed to beat us every time. If you have never been to a Friendsgiving before, I highly suggest going to one/hosting one. It was so much fun and prepares you for Thanksgiving with your family.
1.) UT vs. SC. This past weekend all my friends from my hometown traveled to Neyland for the Tennessee vs. South Carolina game. Since some of my friends went to The University of South Carolina for college this made for the perfect time to all get together and compete in a good game. Our tailgate was like a big high school reunion for us, it made for a great weekend. Thankfully Tennessee came out on top and won so we had to rub it in our friends faces just a little bit. Go Vols! 2.) Days off. This past week I had Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. The amount of things you can get done on a day off during the work week is incredible. I cleaned, cooked, played/cuddled with my pup, and most importantly Christmas shopped! I am obsessed with Christmas shopping for my family even though I'm always a little hesitant when it comes to picking out their gifts, unless I know specifically what they are wanting. I somehow managed to get almost everyone's gifts complete so no more last minute shopping for me this year (hopefully). 3.) Planning Thanksgiving. This year we are hosting our family Thanksgiving at our house for the first time. I am a bit nervous and super excited for this all at the same time. As the usual menu, we will have turkey and ham with all the traditional sides. I have decided to make cream corn, mac and cheese, and Bryan is going to attempt to make his mom's famous stuffing. Everyone that is coming is going to bring a dish or dessert to help out and make it easier. I know my aunt is planning to make sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and home-style mashed potato's. My cousin is known to always make the desserts in our family so I'm looking forward to seeing what she brings. I'm not sure what everyone else plans on making but I am excited to find out. The countdown to Thanksgiving is officially on!
Every morning I try to wake up with a positive mind set and not be such a grouch like I used to be when I first started my big girl job. I've never really been an 'early morning person' and do not drink coffee like most to help me wake up and get the day started. Of course every morning is different and there are good mornings and bad mornings. There's been mornings where I think so negatively for something so small; then I realize how crazy I must seem for letting something so minor attempt to ruin my day.
This morning was one of those mornings. I was rushing to work when I got stuck behind a tractor. I was losing my mind as the tractor went down the road I take to work going a whopping 15 mph in a 45 mph zone. After the tractor finally turned off the road I thought about how I'd much rather be stuck behind a tractor on this pretty back road, rather than being stuck in traffic living in some big city. When I got to work my coworkers had breakfast and a smoothie waiting on me at my desk. How grateful am I to work with such amazing people and have a job I love and enjoy. Sometimes I take the little things for granted but what a joy it is to be able to wake up, have a job, and enjoy another fall day here in East Tennessee. This year's Halloween weekend was so much fun. We started off the weekend on Thursday night in Knoxville at the downtown Brewery for some dinner and drinks. Bryan had surprised me with concert tickets to see Third Eye Blind that night. For anyone who knows me, I've always been a huge fan of theirs. Ever since the late 90's I've been listening to them. Anytime Pandora radio is on, it'll be on the Third Eye Blind station if you're with me. The great thing about this band is Bryan and I both love them and their music. We've been waiting patiently to see them for years and when they recently added Knoxville to their tour, Bryan bought the tickets immediately. Funny side note about this concert- Bryan surprised me with these tickets; meanwhile I almost bought my own tickets to the same concert to surprise him for his birthday. When we both told each other we were looking into concert tickets, we realized we were talking about the same concert. Since he found the tickets and bought them first my kudos goes to him. The concert was held in the Tennessee Theater in down town Knoxville. I had never been inside before and I was at a loss of words for how beautiful it was, the location made for an even better concert. I have to say I have been to a lot of concerts in my day and this was by far one of my all-time favorites. Nothings better than knowing almost every single song played and reliving your inner 90's rock self. The rest of our weekend consisted of movies, football, family pictures, trick-or-treating, family time, and Christmas shopping! Last year was our first Halloween spent in our new house so we had no idea what to expect. I have always been a big fan of Halloween because of my obsession with candy, not because I like dressing up. We soon realized last year after making four trips to CVS for more candy that our neighborhood gets hit hard with trick-or-treaters. This makes me super happy. We have police patrolling our neighborhood, everyone dresses up- even those handing out candy, and this year we had a man dressed up as Batman riding around on a motorcycle throughout the neighborhood. Since I didn't dress up I thought it'd be a good idea to dress Auggie up instead. The costume didn't last. He hated the costume and me when I tried to make him wear it. One of my favorite memories growing up was going trick or treating with all my friends and family in some of the busy neighborhoods around our town. The fact that my neighborhood is included in one of those makes me love where I live even more. This year I thought we came prepared with lots of candy (although I did have to send my dad out to get more.) We had some of my family come over for dinner, football, and to help hand out candy on Halloween night. We had such a great time. My little cutie pie, Beckett dressed up as a lion and helped hand out candy to other little ones (this was the cutest). His Mommy got the biggest kick out of watching him run up to little kids and dump candy in their buckets. Meanwhile, our pup does NOT like Halloween. He went crazy anytime someone approached our house. His little self makes a vicious guard dog, or so he thinks. I look forward to years to come spending Halloween at our house and eventually taking our own little one trick-or-treating throughout our neighborhood.
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