I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving!!!

First things first: Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you all!  I hope you all had a great holiday weekend with all of your loved ones...I sure did!

The time off has been great (although school is still ongoing, so it hasn't been TOO much of a break!)  Seth even got off early on Wednesday (and came home early without telling me, so I thought we had a burglar in our house!)  Wednesday night, one of my best childhood friends (Adam Dodd) was in town and performing at Riot Act Comedy Club, so we went to go watch him and kick off a nice, long weekend!  Adam was great and we had a good time.  To end the night, we went home and I started getting everything prepped for Thanksgiving morning cooking :)

Me and Adam after his show.

On Thanksgiving Day, I got up early and started cooking my portion of the dinner: cranberry sauce, mac and cheese, and an apple bacon (yes, bacon!) pie :)  With the Macy's Parade (and the National Dog Show, which I think I should enter Honey in) on, I finished cooking, cleaning, and putting up our decorations...so we are officially ready for the holidays now!  Seth and I actually got in a pre-Turkey workout and then picked up Andre from the airport before heading to Mom's for dinner.

 

 

 

The Apple Bacon Pie :)

Dad helping us unload dinner supplies - hehe!

Thanksgiving was really nice - lots of good food which, of course, was accompanied by good company :)  Although we def miss the Odoyle clan, it is nice to be able share holidays with the East Coast fam!  After eating ourselves into a food coma, we enjoyed some football and Thanksgiving TV specials (including Lady Gaga!) before calling it quits and heading to bed...and as you will see in the pics below...EVERYONE was exhausted!

Maybe this was what really made everyone tired lol!?

Post-Dinner visiting led too...

Lazy!

Lazy!

Lazy!

After recovering from our food coma, we spent most of our Black Friday avoiding the outside world and hanging out at the house.  In the evening, we all hopped in the car and headed down to Richmond (Mom, Dad, and Andre went to go see Bill O'Reilly's tour).  In honor of Dad's birthday next week, we got a cake and celebrated all together over dinner...and I think Dad liked his gift from us :)  Seth and I found a close-by theater and went to see a movie while we waited, and before I knew it, I was back on the couch watching Lock-Up!

Andre, Mom, & Dad at dinner.

Dad and his Birthday cookie cake!

 To wrap up our trip to Fredericksburg, we got up on Saturday and went to meet Aunt Carol for lunch to celebrate Andre's birthday (which was earlier this month, but since he was in town, we ate in his honor!)  After lunch, we went down to visit Aunt Kathy in the hospital.  For those of you who don't know, doctors just found out that Kathy had a malignant tumor in her pancreas, but thankfully they found it in time to remove it all before any of the cancer spread!  She is looking much better and seems to be on her way to a full recovery, so please continue to keep her in your prayers :)

Today I woke up early to finish decorating and wrapping up things (it's really my last weekend of freedom for a while, because this week I start prepping for finals!)  After getting Honey's check-up (clean bill of health, although she wasn't too fond of her shots!) we hopped in the car and headed to Mt. Airy, Maryland to see Seth's sister Chrissy who was in town visiting her husband Ryan's family for the holidays.  We had a great visit and enjoyed seeing her and baby Nolan (who has grown so much in the three weeks since we last saw him!)  Although we wish we got to see her and all of our beloved Odoyles more often, we are officially counting down (28 days!) until we head to Utah for Christmas!!! 

Honey under the Christmas Tree :)

Baby Nolan had lots to say to his Uncles today :)

Well, it's about that time again...Sunday night blues are hitting and another week is approaching.  But, in the spirit of the holidays, I want to end today's Blog by reminding each of you how THANKFUL I am to have you in my life.  I am truly blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people, and hope you never forget how much I love and appreciate YOU!!!  Hugs and love!