Thanksgiving Festivities

The holiday season got off to a great start, as Mike and I hosted our very first Thanksgiving dinner! My mom came over on Wed. to help me prepare some dishes, so most everything was ready to go by Thursday. I made a pumpkin pie, a jello mold, and the stuffing! We also had turkey (of course), corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, apple pie, and rolls. Everything was so delicious!!

Aside from Mike and I, my parents came over as well as my best girlfriend since we were 11 years old. We enjoyed a lovely meal followed by a rousing game of Scategories!! The meal went off without a hitch and everyone had a nice time. With our first Thanksgiving under our belt, I think we both feel pretty confidant in hosting anything in the future.

Ali and Mike-proud hosts of Thanksgiving 08!

Lis and I with our pies!

My dad and I.

Mom in the middle.

At Thanksgiving, tradition has it that you say all the things you are thankful for. This year for Mike and I, I think the thing we would both say we are most thankful for is each other. We spent a lot of time with the wrong people, but we both finally got it right! We praise God for bringing us together, for our families and friends, our crazy canines who make our lives complete, our beautiful home, health, and the joys of life in general.

We avoided Black Friday like the plague. After 3 years straight of working it, I had had enough! We took care of some business this morning, and followed it up with a trip to the gym to burn off all the good food we packed into our bellies! After that, we both came home and crashed. Hosting is hard work!! When we woke up, we decided it was time to get in the Christmas spirit, so we went out and got our Christmas tree!! Now, I am very particular about my Christmas tree. Sadly, we only have 9 ft ceilings, so an 8 ft tree would have to do. I begged Mike to cut a hole in the ceiling, but he convinced me the logistics of it just wouldn't work out. ;-) Ohh well.

We started off on the great Christmas tree hunt, and we only had to go to 2 places. We started to leave the second place after not seeing what we were looking for (tall and fat!), but we were told they had tons of trees in the back and they would find us the perfect tree. So we said OK, and the staff was very kind to pull out 3 more trees for us to look at. Sure enough, one of them was the winner, and we strapped it on the roof and headed to Home Depot for a stand, a skirt, and we also picked up a beautiful poinsettia, and some electric candles for the windows. We got our perfect tree up tonight, and plan on decorating it this weekend. Once it's finished, we will post pictures! It is definitely starting to look like Christmas around here!

We hope everyone had an equally joyous Thanksgiving and are enjoying the holidays as much as we are!!

Ali and Mike