Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts

Dec 1, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015




We had a good Thanksgiving.

Since the two older girls have (thankfully) graduated from college
and have (even more thankfully) taken jobs that require them to sometimes work on the holidays,
we've had to adjust our holiday celebrations around their work schedules.  

We have learned to celebrate our time together, no matter when that may be.  

We did not think we were going to my dad's for Thanksgiving, but did. 
It was decided on the Sunday before. 
We (my little family) are trying to establish our own holiday celebrations, make new routines, work around work schedules and would love to rotate holidays around.
This is our fifth holiday season since my mom passed away and I just feel like it is time to change things up a bit to accommodate everyone's different lives now.
But guys, family dynamics are hard to deal with.
I just leave it with that.





Barrett was so excited to be in the kitchen baking again!
Living in a dorm on a college campus is really interfering with her hobby.
She was home all day Wednesday and did nothing but bake and cook.






We took this tray of miniature desserts to my dad's house.







Friday, Brooke drove home from DC. She (flight attendant) worked/flew Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and was on call on Thursday so was not able to be here on Thanksgiving Day. Her boyfriend, Mr. E, came with her. 

Brittany's fiancĂ©, Mr. B,  was also staying with us.
He is from Raleigh, but is temporally working in Nashville until February.
Friday night we stayed in and grilled hamburgers and watched TV.







Saturday was the big rivalry football game here in North Carolina, University of North Carolina versus North Carolina State. 





Everyone in our family (boyfriends included) went to one of these schools except for me.
We had pans to tailgate and go to the game. 
Barrett's friend Kat came with us too.



















Sunday, we celebrated Thanksgiving again since Brooke wasn't able to be with us on Thursday. 
This is the second year that we used one of Bobby Flay's roasted turkey recipes and it was delicious once again.





After dinner I forced everyone outside to take pictures.
Our camellia is outdoing itself this year and I couldn't help taking a picture of it on its own.
























Is there ever a photo shoot at our house where there isn't bickering or where someone doesn't demonstrate what the other one is doing wrong? 
NOPE!











Brittany and Mr. B haven't taken engagemnt pictures yet, so I thought I would give him a little taste of all of the torturous things he is going to have to do.
Things like this are really out of his comfort zone.
We found all of the pictures very very funny. 
I'll share later when I start my Wedding Wednesdays after Christmas. 









 I'll leave you with this:




 Bubbles was feeling very very thankful and thought he had hit the Thanksgiving feast jackpot,
until Barrett took her fish back to school with her on Sunday!

Maybe next year Mr. Bubbles!
 





Dec 12, 2014

MID HOLIDAY UPDATE





I guess I better get my Thanksgiving pictures out into the world before the holidays are over or at least before Christmas.
We decorated our two Christmas trees the weekend before Thanksgiving. We usually wait until the Sunday after Thanksgiving and do it as a family, but our weekends this year are full and my two older girls have work schedules to work around. 

We were into the holiday spirit early this year.

Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, some of Art's family came and had dinner with us. 



Lola really tied one on that night! 


On Thanksgiving Day we went to my father's house and had dinner with my family. 
(I sure do miss my mom.)

My little family officially celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday. 
The biggest thing I have learned with my children growing up, working and no longer living at home is that the date on the calendar is just a number.
Their professions do not have typical nine to five hours...
nurses and flight attendants usually work on holidays.
We celebrate when we can.

That being said, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Both Brittany and Brooke had the weekend after Thanksgiving off.
Mr. E came with Brooke from DC and they spent the weekend here in Raleigh. 
(Mr. E is Brooke's boyfriend.)
Brittany's boyfriend, BF1, also was able to come and eat with us too. 
(He lives here in Raleigh.)
My aunt (mom's sister) also came. 









I have roasted a lot of turkeys, but this one was the largest and by far the bet one yet. 





After dinner we attempted to get the perfect Christmas card picture, but that ended up being a major FAIL!

Christmas cards will go out l.a.t.e this year and I am not so sure how they are going to turn out. 
bummer


The next day we took Mr. E to Homewood Nursery to look at all of the poinsettias.
They have greenhouses full of them.




It is the place to go to get into the Christmas spirit. 





The pups were exhausted after the two older girls left and Barrett went back to school on Monday.
Literally, I don't think they moved!









We struggled to get back into a routine.

Barrett has been so busy at school.  
She is exempt from all of her exams for the semester so she doesn't have to go in next week and 
today was her last day of school! 
Unfortunately, she was bombarded with tests all this week. 

Bubbles and I sat on her bathroom floor and called out AP European History terms while she took a shower. 
It is called multitasking.






What will I do with my evenings when she goes to college next year? 
Am I going to miss this? 



Art, my wonderful husband, packed up a few shirts and a pair of khakis and went to Las Vegas for five days for a vacation conference.
The day he got home, someone at work gave him a very large cooler of fresh oysters. 
With it just being the three of us here at home.....we roasted and ate oysters three nights in a row.  




They were delicious!





The house is all decorated and I have put a good dent in my wrapping. 
Bubbles always loves sleeping under the tree, and this year he plants himself under the two cat ornaments to nap.




Charlie... 



is just hanging around waiting on Santa.......



or another piece of turkey..... and will be happy with which ever comes first.