...And Then There was Thanksgiving

I swear it happens every year around this time... 

I do great blogging before/around Thanksgiving, and then WHAM! Between the celebrating, decorating, cleaning, traveling, cooking - whatever I happen to be doing - and life, I forget to stop and blog for a minute. Not to mention this year I'm also preparing to, you know, have a baby. That's kind of a big deal.

So, Thanksgiving!

We left Wednesday afternoon to spend the holiday weekend in North Carolina. A holiday! With family! *gasp* We've made it to see family for Christmas - usually - but this was our first Thanksgiving with family since before we moved to Hawaii. And seriously, that feels like a bazillion years ago now. Our lives were so different then... We were still newlyweds, still new to the Army, didn't have babies, and...just different. It was definitely a nice change. {Although I'm not sure if I will ever agree to traveling 9 months pregnant again. Even if it is only 4 hours in a car.}

We had a great time with family, but I have zero pictures from Thanksgiving. I'm blaming preggo brain on this one! I did attempt a few shots of Charlotte with her cousins, but none of them turned out well. Of course.

On Black Friday, we boycotted shopping {even though I was dying to get an iPad mini} and went to the mountains in search of Christmas trees. Even though we didn't come home with a tree, we enjoyed tagging along with everyone else. 

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Grammy, Gramps, (Joe's grandparents) and the kiddos.

Charlotte and Eden holding hands. They are the sweetest little girls!!

Charlotte and Auntie Sarabeth, clearly excited about Auntie Sara's tree. Haha

Charlotte and Auntie Anna

Family pic! One of us wasn't thrilled. 

My cuties. LOVE.

Saturday, my lovely SILs threw me a baby shower! It ended up just being family, but that was just fine. I didn't have any family around for Charlotte's shower, so it was a nice change. Although I did miss seeing my NC friends, I knew it would be difficult to arrange with it being a holiday. We also took some family pics, but I'm saving those for later. Spoilers. ;-)

The preggo and the hostesses with the mostest. ;-)

Family shot!

Me and the gifts. =)

We drove back to GA on Sunday, and I've basically been playing catch-up with laundry and housework ever since. We left the house in a bit of a mess (all of us got sick with a cold last week), and then Charlotte's cold got worse on Monday. And I'm 9 months pregnant and tired most of the time. So....bad combo! Plus, I've got quite a bit of things to do to get ready for Millie's arrival. 24 days, people. Twenty. Four. Days. Until my due date. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around that one!

I have a couple posts rolling around in my brain, so stay tuned! I promise not to go completely AWOL unless I'm giving birth or something. ;-) And even then you know I'll be back with baby pictures!! 

How are you recovering from the holiday....and preparing for the next? 

Once Upon a Time...

There was this thing called Thanksgiving. We celebrated it and had friends over.

I cooked the entire meal...

With a little bit of help from Joe.

Not only did he help in the kitchen, but he also watched the little miss so I could get some work done.

My favorite shot of the day - daddy and baby dancing in the kitchen. :)

I also made 3 desserts {which took a lot more effort than I thought it would}.

Chocolate pecan pie, mini apple pies, and pumpkin pie rice krispy treats.

Not pictured: ice cream to go with the apple pies. :)

The mini apple pies. Fortunately they tasted better than they looked! :)

A couple table shots...

We do Thanksgiving buffet-style. Much easier. :)

Simplistic, but still nice!

I wish I'd taken more shots of all of us {especially since our friends are leaving}, but here's what I have.

The whole gang...minus moi, the photographer. {ha}

Mrs. C, her hubby, and little girl. 

We're SO gonna miss them!

My little {blurry} turkey. ;-)

And, last but not least, us!

Other than all the cooking, we had a pretty low-key day. Well, maybe I did. Mrs. C had a newborn to feed and take care of. My bean is fairly low maintenance these days. :) We had a really good, really fun Thanksgiving. I've discovered that I really love cooking for and entertaining friends! I only wish we were able to do it more often, especially with these friends! 

I still can't believe our first {and closest} island friends are leaving. I'll probably talk more about it next week, but suffice it to say this will be the hardest "see ya later" I've had to say since Joe deployed. 

Also to come.... Christmas decorations! I know my posting has been spotty lately, but thanks for hanging in there with me! :)

Stuffsgiving

I figured since Thanksgiving was almost 5 days ago I might want to post about it. =P

We had a really great Thanksgiving this year. I was really excited that Joe was home with me this year. It's amazing how completely different everything is when your husband is deployed. I really felt like I could enjoy myself this year. So, I decided I'd host Thanksgiving...20 weeks pregnant. =P

We were planning a Thanksgiving lunch, so we got up at 0700 and put the turkey in the oven. Not without issues, though. It's the first turkey I've ever made, so I guess I should have been prepared to have a problem with something. Fortunately it wasn't a huge problem; we just couldn't get the darn wire from around the legs. I ended up calling my Nana because, well, she's made a bazillion turkeys in her lifetime. She's far wiser than I when it comes to cooking. I think she enjoyed me calling to ask how to get the wire off...she had a great laugh at our expense. =P And after her instruction, we {read: Joe} got the wire off in no time, buttered it, seasoned it and popped it in the oven. I was still worried about it though.

I had planned to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but I forgot that I wouldn't be able to cook anything else in our oven after the turkey was in there. Oops. So we had a lovely breakfast of cereal while we awaited turkey dinner. We watched the Macy's parade for a while before we started getting the house {and ourselves} ready for the day. If nothing else, the house looked really nice..in my opinion. =P

The table all ready for our guests!

Dessert table in the kitchen...awaiting more desserts.

Sadly, these are all the pictures I took of the kitchen, food, etc. I took a couple of desserts after the fact, but none during. Actually none of us took any pictures. There were 3 bloggers in this house on Turkey Day and not one of us took a single photo!! For shame. ;-) I'm going to say we didn't take pictures because we were having too much fun and digging in on the good food. I did manage to get a shot of our lunch menu:

I was so nervous about how the turkey would turn out... Like my awesome hubby said, I shouldn't have worried so much. It turned out far better than I expected it to! It didn't look that great, but it tasted very good. I think it would have made my Nana proud...as would the mashed potatoes I made that were gone by round 1 of lunch. ;-) I now understand why she made so many - they don't last long! Jennifer was a big help and brought the green beans, salad and rolls. It was a relief not to have to do everything.

For dessert, I made a chocolate pecan pie {first pie and first pecan pie ever}. 

Annie brought some delish red velvet cupcakes, apple pie {with ice cream}, and pumpkin pie. I really don't think we had enough options for lunch or dessert. Do you? ;-) By the time we were finished eating, I think we all could have used a nap. Well...I could have, anyway!

One of Annie's yummy cupcakes. Mmmm.

It wasn't the Thanksgiving I'm used to having with family, but it was definitely a great one. I'm thankful that I was able to spend it with my hubby and good friends this year. And next year I won't have to worry so much about making a turkey! We rounded out our 4 day weekend with a tiny bit of Black Friday shopping, Saturday tree decorating, and Sunday dinner with our good friends, Mr. & Mrs. C. =)

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving weekend as well! 

P.S. Stay tuned for a super fun, crafty giveaway this week! 

Give Thanks

When I first thought of titling this post, a song popped into my head. It's a pretty popular one, if a little bit outdated. "Forever" by Chris Tomlin.

"Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King, His love endures forever."

That's the way today should be spent. Thanking God for His great love, His great sacrifice and for His many blessings. What better way to spend Thanksgiving than to praise God?! I don't have family around me today, and I have very few distractions. I'm not cooking or cleaning. I'm sitting on my couch halfway watching the Macy's parade. I think it's only fitting that I thank God for the things I have instead of focusing on things I don't have around me today - my husband, my family, my bestest friends, etc. 

Instead, I'll be thankful for everything He's given me:

A wonderful, loving, sacrificial husband.

Taken at their Thanksgiving concert. Joe is behind Santa, just to the right.

A family that cares about me. 

In-laws that have become family.

My Savior, who paid for my sin (and everyone else's too!) on the cross.

My bestie. She keeps me sane, speaks Truth into my life and calls me out on my crap even if I don't want to hear it.

Taken when she visited me this summer. =)

My new friends here on the island. 

Jasper. =) 

My super cute niece. 

My silly and strange nephew.

He's the one on the far right with the Justin Bieber hair. *sigh*

The opportunity to live in Hawaii where it's warm... Even though I don't always like being here.

A roof over my head.

Food in my fridge and pantry.

A car to drive.

That pesky insurance that the Army pays for.

That little thing called a paycheck the Army deposits into our account twice a month.

My freedom, which is paid for by men and women who have fought proudly for this country.

Little things like:

Skype

My computer

My iPhone

Netflix

Phone calls from my husband

The internet connection that we pay way too much for.

My bloggie friends.

The Donut of Misery that is looking more green these days.

And many, many other things... Just too much to list.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my lovely readers and friends!

P.S. Please send me your fall photos! This is the last week!!

Because of the holiday, I'll wait to post the pictures and voting poll until Friday night (my time).