Thanksgiving

 

We had a great thanksgiving this year.  We hosted it at our house, and Lee’s parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their daughter stayed with us.  My family lives here :)

Everyone helped with the side dishes, but we were in charge of the turkey, stuffing, and a couple of other things.  It didn’t dawn on me until less than a week before thanksgiving day that I’ve never actually made a turkey.  And I don’t have recipes for anything that goes with it!  Cue panic.  Luckily my friend Jenny saved the day and gave me some great recipes!  I followed her recipe for the turkey, and after watching hours of Food Network decided to brine it first.  I got SO many compliments on the turkey.  I think it was a combination of the brine, and they recipe that said to roast it breast side down for the first half of the cooking time.  Either way, I was so happy I didn’t screw it up!

It really was such a great day of getting to know family and just hanging out and relaxing.  Everyone said that they had a great time, and I’m glad.  I know I did.  It was so great to have so much family in one place.  And everyone got along :)

Okay, now for come pictures.

I’ve mentioned that we offered to host so that we would finally make a decision on a new table.  And here she is.  This is with 2 leaves (leafs? no.), so much longer than usual.  I know the rug is way too small.

Cooper and his cousin Cailee.  She is a year older than him.  Have I mentioned this is the first time Cooper and I have met my sister in law and her family?  Yep!  They lived in Alaska up until about a year ago, and then they lived a few states away.  They live in Lee’s hometown right now, which is about 3 hours from where we live.  They are a military family, and I don’t think they plan on staying close by for very long  :( 

Our little family :)

Cooper with my brother.  Cooper LOVES his uncle Tyler.  Seriously.  It’s so funny!  Cooper sat still in Tyler’s lap while he read the paper.  Cooper never sits still!

Cheese!!  This makes me laugh, I was following him around with the camera trying to get a good picture.

Lee’s side of the family

My side of the family

That evening, we decided to go walk around a local church/bible school that puts on a huge Christmas light display.  You can drive through it or walk.  I have lived here my whole life and never walked through it!  And only driven through once.  This was Cooper’s first time to really see Christmas lights, and he LOVED them!  He was so excited and kept pointing at them.

His arm is out because he was pointing :)

Such a great day!

Mish Mash

I feel like all I’m doing lately is playing catch up.  In life and on this blog!

Since I last posted, Cooper had another ear infection (shocking!), I had a mild stomach bug, Lee got the flu, then I got the flu.  Whew.

Somehow, Cooper managed to escape the flu.  I have no idea how, but I am SO SO grateful.  We all 3 got the flu shot also.  This was the first time I’d gotten it, and the first time since 8th grade (when I had to miss the Valentine’s Day dance) that I have had the flu.  Does that tell you anything about my decision to get the shot next year? 

Work is incredibly busy.  Between a typically busy year end, and a huge change my company is making, I have not been this busy since I started working here 3 years ago.  I don’t mind it though.  Makes the days go by faster.

I am sad that, because we are SO busy with work, (oh and that little thing called vacation days that no longer exist because of all the sickness since September) we aren’t going to get to start the annual tradition of having a little family Christmas getaway that I have been wanting to kickoff.  Maybe next year.

The good news about being sick so much lately?  I have lost as much as 10 lbs in the past 6 weeks.  I have managed to keep a steady 7 of it from coming back.  Yippee!  Haha.  My clothes don’t really fit any differently, but I’ll take anything :)

We have had 3 earthquakes in the past 3 days.  We live in Oklahoma.  Not normal for us!  What is normal is tornadoes, but not in November.  And yesterday?  Tornadoes AND an earthquake!  StopitrightnowMotherNature.

I am already in the holiday spirit and I am honestly fighting the urge to bring down the Christmas decorations!  Ridiculous!

Speaking of the holidays, we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, as I have mentioned.  I guess this means that I have to cook the turkey?  How?!  Advice?!  I don’t even like to eat turkey.  I wish we had a turkey fryer, I actually will eat fried turkey.  Hmmm…Oh, Husband!!

I finally finished a photo book of Cooper’s first year!!  The one I made is actually for our parents, but I am still so happy about it!  I want to do a separate one for us.  The grandparents’ one only has pictures, but I want to include milestones, fun memories, etc. in ours.  I had to start with the easier one because I put so much pressure on myself and then stress so much I just don’t even start it.  Ridiculous.

Eggnog latte is back at Starbucks!!  I wait for it to come out like a lot of people wait for the pumpkin spice latte :)