Thanksgiving Holidays

It's December - what in the world? How has this year flown by so quickly? I wanted to pop in and share some pictures from our Thanksgiving holidays! They were a little different from what we'd planned as we were missing some family members - but it was a lovely time of thankfulness and rest all the same!

I got off work on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at 1 - and headed straight home to get our house cleaned up some and begin Thanksgiving prep! My sweet little cats were only interested in one thing once I got home, using me as a place to nap! I finished up a book I'd been reading while the cats snuggled up to me and took their afternoon naps... and then a bit later, I worked on dinner, cleaning the house and prepping the sweet potato casserole and corn casserole for Thanksgiving!

We started our Thanksgiving shortly after 7:30 - we had to get up, prep the turkey and get it started cooking! The cats were very interested in what we were doing with the turkey but otherwise weren't too concerned! After the turkey was taken care of, we had our coffee and I was ready to watch when the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began at 8:30! It's not Thanksgiving without the Macy's Parade!

Ryan and I hosted this year; our first year in our new home, and I think everything went great! I tried a new turkey recipe that my Mom had shared with me and let me tell you - if I can brag on myself a wee bit - the turkey turned out so great! It was perfectly cooked, tender, juicy and flavorful and I am still enjoying the leftovers, ha-ha! We also had ham, dressing, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (so many casseroles) English peas, cinnamon apples... and I think that was everything!

My Dad made fast friends with Maverick - who was pleased to curl up next to him for his pre-feast nap, ha-ha! I whipped out the apron my parents brought me from Paris and puttered around the kitchen making sure my Mom had any assistance she needed and making sure my items got cooked to perfection! And I must confess, I also attempted to carry Maverick around in the pocket of my apron! 

Everything turned out divine and shortly after 2:00 - we had our Thanksgiving feast! And the cats were so sleepy, they didn't even concern themselves with trying to come poke around and see what we were eating! Which is good because later on - they went wild for leftovers, ha-ha!

We enjoyed our mornings off on Friday and Saturday - and we even braved some Black Friday shopping on Friday, but not very early because we aren't completely crazy! We found a couple deals here and there that we purchased, but nothing too crazy. We learned that when Thanksgiving leftovers come out - Maverick goes absolutely wild and will scale whoever and whatever he needs to in an attempt to get bites! And I made some adjustments to our Christmas tree, adding some shatterproof ornaments to give it a little bit more color and flair... so far the ornaments have survived the cats! 

We spent plenty of time goofing off with our cats - they are getting along wonderfully now - perhaps maybe a little too wonderfully? They race throughout the house like little wild men, chasing and pouncing and rolling around the house, sounding like elephants instead of little cats that might weigh all of fifteen pounds rolled together! We tried the cat-in-hood method with Maverick; Spook would probably never allow us to tote him around in a hoodie, ha-ha!

Saturday evening we finally made it to the theater to see Wicked and it was just as incredible as I'd heard! I don't know that Ryan was quite so thrilled to see it as I was but he was a good sport and said when all was said and done, that it was "pretty good". Men. After church on Sunday, I really got the Christmas spirit going and finished up our Christmas cards (Maverick helped...) and got some presents wrapped and placed under the tree. I'm hoping that the presents will help keep the cats out from under the tree and keep the tree skirt in place... we shall see.

We closed out our four day weekend with football - of course! Watching the Bills play the 49ers in the snow in New York. As you can see - Maverick was quite intrigued by all of it, the little goose! It was a wonderful break and now we are headed headlong into the Christmas season and all that comes with it!