I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday week/weekend! We’re back in the ‘burg now but we had a GREAT time in Atlanta seeing lots of friends and family and eating lots of good food. My mom, Jason, and I worked all Tuesday night and all day on Wednesday preparing a massive Thanksgiving feast. My mom loves having lots of dishes for guests to choose from, and so we do it big every year!

Thanksgiving 2011

• roasted turkey with turkey gravy
  
• oyster cornbread dressing
• collard greens
• green bean casserole
• cabbage au gratin
• mixed greens salad with glazed pecans and diced pears
• whole wheat crescent rolls
• cranberry sauce
• creamy fruit salad
• roasted vegetables
• sweet potato souffle
  
• caramel apple pie
• sweet potato pie
• pecan pie

With the family and friends we had over this Thanksgiving, there was a total of 13 people at our table(s)!!! It feels great to be surrounded by people on a holiday like this. I was more involved with the cooking this year than any year before. The only dishes I didn’t make or help with were the turkey (it scares me!) and the cornbread dressing. It was a good learning experience and I think a few years down the road I could definitely handle hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at my house!

I didn’t even have room to put all the dishes on my plate! I sure did try though. 🙂

We waited an hour or so to proceed to what my dad calls “Round 2”: dessert! The pies were all amazing! Nobody makes pie like my mom.

Our family friends had thier baby with them and I spent much of the evening stealing her away and playing with her. I had a blast! We weren’t ready to leave Georgia at all, but we had class today so there was no choice. We took the long drive back yesterday and pulled into our driveway around 2 this morning. We’re exhausted, to say the least. But despite that, somehow I convinced Jason that we could not wait a single day longer to put up our Christmas decorations. I LOVE decorating the house for Christmas, especially now that we have a place of our own. It makes me feel like we’re really our own little family! We turned on the Christmas music…

…and got to work! I assembled the tree while Jason hung garland.

And then we hung ornaments together! All that was missing was eggnog with a little booze inside. We had a night class to get to after decorating though, so that wouldn’t have been a good idea. It actually didn’t take us long at all, and the finished product looks pretty great!

You might not be able to tell because of the colored lights, but we have a theme with our tree so all of our ornaments are red and gold. I may have to take more pictures in the daylight without the tree lights on. I love all our ornaments!

There’s even a few presents under there already!

This year I am thankful for SO many things, like I am every year. I’m thankful for family, I’m thankful for being able to travel, for having the means to put presents under the tree, to have a wonderful husband to make holiday memories with, to have my health and my life and so many blessings.

We’re about to head into the most stressful time of the school year, but I keep trying to remind myself of all my blessings and not get too caught up in the pressure of things. These are the holidays after all!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren