Thanksgiving (again)

I noticed when going through my pictures today that I had forgotten to add a few from Thanksgiving and the next morning. The morning after Thanksgiving, Christmas (our Elf on the Shelf) returned with a fun surprise for Lily :)

Christmas Tree Time!

This year, we decided to get our tree from a nursery I visited last year when picking up a gift card for Richard for our anniversary. They're a smaller nursery, family run, and not only do they have great plants, trees, etc. but they have really excellent customer service. If you're in the need for anything garden related in the Raleigh area, check out Homewood Nursery - they really are great.

So, we picked out our tree with minimal fuss and then decided to pick up a floor poinsettia while we were there. The nursery was having a black Friday sale, so everything was 30% off (including the trees), but the poinsettias were almost half off - a great deal! (more on the poinsettia later). We (the nursery guys) loaded the tree onto the jeep and we drove it home and got it inside (Richard did most of that). It actually had fallen quite a bit, so we were pretty comfortable getting the lights on and decorating it later that night. Which we did with yummy leftover Thanksgiving snacks and mulled wine - yum!

Did you know that poinsettias do not do well in the cold? We did not. So, the first night after we got it, we left it outside and it froze. It is now dead. End of poinsettia. We enjoyed it for exactly 8 hours? Oh well, now we know for next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2013 was so much fun! My parents came up the night before to stay with us, so that mom could help me cook the next day. They stayed through Thanksgiving night and it was so nice to have them here! I think that's the longest we've had someone stay with us at this house and I bet they'd do it again - right mom and dad?? We would!

We had representatives from both sides of the family this Thanksgiving, so we had a pretty big group. I just love big, fun, loud family holidays. We had Richard's mom and dad, his sister and her husband and my parents with us. Mom helped me cook (lifesaver!!) and we had a ton of great food - turkey and stuffing (my dad actually stuffs the bird with mom's stuffing and it is OH. MY. GOODNESS. good), green bean casserole, squash casserole, homemade rolls, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce - the works! And for dessert: apple pie, chocolate cream pie and pecan pie. It was a feast!

That night, after we'd stuffed ourselves to the gills, mom, dad, Richard and I had a spades tournament while watching The Avengers and having Irish coffee. It was a lot of fun and we're currently tied in the tournament - final match is 2 weeks away! We took some family pics with/for mom and dad before Thanksgiving - you can check them out below. Make sure you don't miss the Oz outtakes in the middle :)