Turkey Weekend 2011

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was a bit of a whirlwind but wonderful all the same. Kyle and I started out at my parent's house, where we did Thanksgiving lunch with my mom's side of the family.

For the table settings, my mom kept it simple and functional. She did paper plates on top of the gold chargers and also used paper napkins, which meant less time cleaning and more time with the fam!

For the centerpieces, my mom wrapped a garland of leaves and plumes around a cute funkin. This centerpiece has made an appearance at many Thanksgivings and works beautifully every time.

While I was running around taking pictures of the tables, I ran into this cutie. He wasn't too thankful, though, that we just set up a big table on the comfy rug he had claimed as his nap spot for the day. Sorry buddy!

After we had our fill of turkey and dressing, there was the inevitable family photo shoot. Even though it's not everyone's favorite thing to do, it is fun to look back at Thanksgivings past and see how our family has grown and changed throughout the years. Here is my immediate family:

Cousins Ali, Grace, Caroline and me.
Ali and me. :)
My Aunt Carol, my Mom, and Aunt Catherine.
Our friends from church, Stephen and Mallery, got to join us as well. Mallery only had Thanksgiving Day off from work, and seeing as they are from Iowa, they could not make it up there and back in a reasonable amount of time. So we offered for them to join us and they got to be part of our family for a day!

This is my extended family on my Mom's side, only missing my cousin Creagh and her new husband Chris (and baby Bennett who is on the way!).
The Jones family, looking sharp! And congrats goes out to my cousin Caroline, who just found out about her acceptance to UGA. Our family bleeds that red and black!
Before we knew it, it was time to travel over the river and through the woods to Thanksgiving dinner #2! This was with my dad's side of the family, and as you can see it is pretty large as well. Even a year later it was still hard to not have Meemaw there, but we all know she definitely has the better end of the deal. :)

The next day, we spent a lazy morning with my family and then headed over to Kyle's parents house after lunch. We stopped by Best Buy on the way just to see if they still had the Black Friday deal I was looking for on an e-reader, and they surprisingly had plenty left in stock! Even though it may be weird to some to know what you are getting for Christmas, it just makes me that much more excited!

Friday night we had Thanksgiving dinner #3 with Kyle's parents and his older sister, Jenny. One tradition that Kyle's family has that mine does not is making sausage stuffing, which made eating Thanksgiving dinner #3 that much easier to swallow (pardon the pun).

Saturday we did a family photo shoot by the covered bridge in Kyle's parent's neighborhood (it's gorgeous!), hoping to get a Christmas card picture out of it. Here's a sneak peek:

It's amazing we were able to get a family picture with all three dogs, since this is how they really feel about each other:

Don't let that picture fool you though, Kyle's parent's Dobermans are the sweetest dogs on earth. They just get a little annoyed by Doc because he is a playful puppy and they simply are not. Doc likes to push their buttons more than he should. ;) He quickly forgot his altercation with Kobe and Atlas as he had some quality bonding time with Jenny on the car ride home back from the bridge.

Later that afternoon we watched the Georgia/Georgia Tech game at a friend's house, glad to finish the season with a win. Here's Kyle's victory face:

Go Dawgs! (Don't know what that serious hubby face is all about.)
So that wraps up our Thanksgiving weekend, now for my favorite time of the year! I'm so excited because tonight we will be on the hunt for the perfect fraser fir Christmas tree and putting up the rest of our Christmas decor. Let the festivities begin!

The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry

Lots of things have happened in UGA football since the Auburn game on November 12, but I still wanted to write about us going to this game since it played such a key part in UGA winning the SEC East, which obviously doesn't happen too often for the Dawgs. It's something worth remembering, at least for Kyle and me!

Kyle and I got up early that Saturday morning in order to make it to Athens by noon, where we were supposed to meet my family at my brother's fraternity tailgate on Myers Quad. Thanks to a situation with Doc that came up right as we were walking out the door (isn't that how it always happens?), we were running thirty minutes late and were unable to park in the parking deck we normally use on gameday since it was already full. We ended up driving all over Athens looking for a (free) place to park, and finally met my family in front of Snelling dining hall about an hour later.

After we had our fill of tailgate food, we walked to The Red Zone in downtown Athens to browse for some Christmas gifts before the game started. I had heard that Lindsay Scott would be there for a book signing, and sure enough he was! Kyle got to shake hands with him and chat for a sec. Pretty cool!

And we know how the rest of the story goes, we KILLED Auburn 45-7, and went on to beat Kentucky a week later to win the SEC East. It's great to be a Georgia Bulldawg! After the game, we ate at my uncle's new restaurant downtown, The Volstead. It was crazytown in there after the game, but their fish taco is the best I've ever had and was SO worth the wait! And I'm not just saying that because I'm family. My Mom and I couldn't quit ranting and raving about it!

And while we're on the subject of UGA, I have to say that while we're on cloud nine due to winning the East, it is bittersweet to lose someone like Larry Munson who was such an integral part of the Bulldawg Nation. I'll never forget all those times riding in the car and listening to Larry Munson call the game when I was little, and even now hearing the replays of game-changing moments in Georgia history with his voice giving the play-by-play. There never was nor will there ever be anyone like him. We miss you, Larry!

Now here's to hoping we can get tickets to the SEC Championship!

Weekend Things

This past weekend was super bizz-ay, but still so very fun!
Friday night I went to see Breaking Dawn with my sister, best friend and a few other girls from their small group at church. The verdict? Let's just say I'm glad I only paid $6 for my ticket (thanks to this deal from Travel Zoo). I was so disappointed, which seems to be the general consensus. Way too much cheese for me. Hopefully Part 2 can redeem it! (Thanks Mattie for the iPhone pic!)

Saturday afternoon we hosted a baby shower for one of my best friends, Ashley. We had so much fun munching on our chick food and oohing & aahing over all the cute stuff she got, such as this (holy-cuteness-batman!) piggy bank:

Casiana Grace, isn't that a beautiful name? A beautiful name coming from an obviously beautiful mother:
Right after the baby shower, I took some family photos for my sister, Ashley (not to be confused with pregnant best-friend Ashley) and her husband Alan in the gorgeous late afternoon light. I'm still editing the photos, but it looks like there are quite a few with Christmas Card potential! :)

Saturday night we took Lauren out to downtown Athens for her bachelorette party. I can't believe she is getting married in a month and a half, and I'll get to see my Fab Five girls all over again!

Sunday afternoon I had some sweet roomie catch-up time with Julie from The Smitten Mintons! When I saw that she was going to be in town for Thanksgiving, I immediately messaged her to get together since we hadn't seen each other since the Georgia-South Carolina game in 2010! It was so good to catch up with her over a Gingerbread Latte (it's practically Christmas in a cup, y'all!).

We chatted for almost two hours, but it wasn't nearly long enough. I miss this girl so much! Like she mentioned on her blog, Julie and her husband Doug were our favorite couple to double date with. We always had so much fun! Guess this means we'll just have to make a special trip out to California to make another double date happen. ;)

Sorry about the close up, Julie, but you are beautiful so it doesn't matter! Well that is it for last weekend, I didn't even unpack once I got back home to Augusta because we are turning right around and leaving for my parent's house again tomorrow. Gotta love the holiday season and feeling like you live out of a suitcase. And if I don't get a chance to post again before Thursday, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Weekend Update

Howdy howdy! We had a GREAT weekend this weekend! Here's what we were up to:

Saturday Kyle and I headed to Athens for the UGA/Auburn game. It was so much fun to be in Sanford Stadium for that big win! Go Dawgs!

Sunday we did a double photo shoot with our friends Sam and Amanda. I took some photos for Sam and Amanda, and Amanda took some photos for Kyle and me. Pretty sweet deal! Here's a little sneak peek:

And last but not least, yesterday was my beautiful Mom's birthday! This is one of my favorite pictures with my mom and sister, taken two years ago at a wedding in New York. Hope you had a happy birthday, Mom!

You'll hear more about a few of these things later. In the meantime, have a happy rest of your Monday!

2nd Annual Camping Trip: Part 2

(Continued from Part 1 posted on Monday)
After our 4-hour hike on Looking Glass Rock, we drove over to Black Forest Campground where we camped for the night. I know I know, it's kind of cheating to stay at a campground with a bathroom and a shower, but since it was gated we felt much safer staying there than out on a public trail. Black Forest is where we stayed during last year's camping trip too, and once again they had these beautiful roses blooming in front of the welcome office. I couldn't help grabbing a couple photos!

We thought it would be funny if we got assigned to the same campsite that we stayed in last year, and what do you know, we did. What's up, deja vu! Like last year, Kyle refused to buy firewood and instead took off to his secret spot in the woods to find our own free firewood, while I set up the tent and the air mattress (cheating again, I know).

Meanwhile, Doc was lounging on his soft bed all wrapped up in a towel. Poor baby just wasn't used to it being so cold!

We switched it up this year and made white chicken chili (we used this recipe) for dinner, along with some grilled cheese.

The more the sun went down, the less thrilled Doc was with the cold. I feel ya buddy!

For dessert we made s'mores, of course, and then soon after it was time to snuggle with Doc in the tent! Since Doc doesn't ever sleep in the bed with us (he's not allowed on furniture), he absolutely loved it! Initially he was hesitant to get in the tent because he thought he was breaking the rules, but once we told him it was ok he had no problem burrowing under the covers and taking over our pillows.

You can see the next morning how much he was sprawled out. Don't mind my face, Doc!

After breakfast, Doc found the perfect spot from where he could oversee things while we packed up. ;) Once we got his stamp of approval, we made the short drive over to Brevard, NC to do a little shopping and eat some lunch.

We posed with this neat moose-thingy in downtown Brevard, which looks like it is made out of branches from far away but is actually made out of wires/cables. Pretty neat!

After browsing around a few boutiques, I found the perfect baby shower gift for my friend Ashley who is expecting a baby girl in March! I can't wait for her shower coming up in a few short weeks, and the Fab 5 reunion that will happen because of it!

A little side note, all over downtown Brevard they had these overstuffed bears sitting on benches (kinda gross in my opinion), and Doc thought he found the best chew toy EVER. He was fascinated with them! For lunch we thought we would eat at this soda shop place, but Kyle couldn't find anything he wanted on the menu so we skipped over to Zaxby's and then made our way home. It was a short and sweet trip, but the perfect Fall getaway nonetheless! Have any of y'all gone camping/hiking this Fall? Or do you prefer "glamping"?

Have a great weekend, and go play outside if you haven't already!