Thanksgiving Week 2008

***UPDATE*** Original post updated to include photo link at the end of the post on 12/1/08.

We hosted it in our new house. It was so much fun but boy we are ready for some rest now. (o;

Monday my mom and dad drove into town from Texas around dinner time. We ate at El Nopal a Mexican restaurant down the street from our house and then they met a few of our friends.

Tuesday mom came over and we started our shopping list. We headed to Target to buy just a few items and noticed we could get pretty much everything. So we had a Target Thanksgiving. Also we took a little trip to Trader Joe's for a few more things. Just after we finished shopping Pop and Polly (my grandparents on my mom's side) drove into town from Ohio. We met up with some Georgia relatives and ate at Olive Garden.

Wednesday my Mom, Polly, and I started cooking. We got Mother Cheeker's dressing and the sweet potatoes ready. Then we took them to see our old apartment in Smyrna and my school and then ended up at our local coffee shop Cuppy's. Just as we ordered our coffee Patrick and Lydia text us saying "We're minutes from your house." So they just met us at Cuppy's where Dave met our nephew Adam for the first time! Then Dave rushed to prepare a wonderful BBQ meal but had to run get his parents from the airport. So the rest of us ate his yummy meal.

Thursday Turkey day! In the morning Dave and I tried to start the turkey and realized he was too grossed out by the smell and I was grossed out by the look. So Dave's Dad saved the day and helped us get the bird started. Then everyone came over. We ate appetizers, snapped some pictures of Adam in leaves, and cooked. Almost everything was on time. We ate about a hour later then planned and the turkey had to be microwaved just to make sure it was ready. Otherwise everything tasted great and everything went smoothly. Tom even helped us barbecue the ham and a pumpkin pie because we didn't have enough room to cook everything. :-P Pop, Polly, my mom, and Pat worked very hard on cleaning dishes and putting things away. Everyone pitched in and it was wonderful! That evening we sat around playing with Adam and playing games.

Friday Black Friday Dave and I found some great deals on athletic shoes and some other items. Then we met more Georgia relatives and went to eat at a Chinese restaurant not far from our house. The two girls wanted to play our Wii. So I set them up and they had fun. The Greene's and I went hiking on Kennesaw Mountain to get some of the turkey burned out of our system. That evening we all had leftovers and Patrick and Lydia worked very hard to help set it all up for us.

Saturday For breakfast we went to the Holiday Inn Express where we said good-bye and hugged everyone. After that Dave and I took Tom and Pat to see some more sites in Atlanta in the rain. We ate lunch at one of Dave's favorite places by the airport: Which Wich and then they were headed home.

Now we are just being lazy and quiet. It was fun but a lot of work!! (o; We were sooo happy that so much family made it. We really missed the other family members that didn't come. We'll be vising most of them soon though we hope!

Click here to view the Thanksgiving Photos.

LA Trip Nov 2008

Our last trip out to SoCal was back in April of this year and it's been too long. I had a 4-day weekend so I took advantage. Allison was only able to come out for about 24 hours as she had other things going on.

I headed out Thursday night and got back around noon on Monday. It was nice to get away and relax a little. We spent a lot of time watching the news about all the wildfires around the area. Crazy stuff.

We went to a new park my dad found nearby; The Kenneth Hahn Recreation Area just east of Culver City. It is an elevated area that has great views of the city. The Sylmar fires, north of LA in the San Fernando Valley, had just started that day. The fires east of LA in Corona, Yorba Linda, Brea and Anaheim Hills hadn't started yet. So we still had a fairly unobstructed smoke-free view.

There was ash falling at my parents in Marina del Rey and it smelled like smoke outside all day on Sunday. Crazy. After taking Allison to the airport, my dad and I tried to go sailing but decided we didn't want to be out breathing in the smoke.

Click Here for some pictures from the trip.

P.S. My parents have been working on a kitchen renovation for the better part of this year, hence the finished kitchen photos in the album.