Thanksgiving in Virginia

Tickets to fly to Kentucky for Thanksgiving this year were once again WAY too expensive, so we decided we would tackle the "short" 9.5 hour drive to Chuck's sister Shawn's beautiful and cozy house in Virginia. (Ever since our cross country road trip we feel that 9.5 hours in a car is a breeze .) So Tuesday evening, after I got off work and he got out of class, we started the drive. Looking back, trying to leave Boston at 5:15 pm on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week was probably not the smartest plan, but oh well. Sometimes you learn things the hard way.

We drove through the night to get to Virginia. It rained the ENTIRE  drive, except for maybe 20 total minutes. The traffic was terrible. It took us 2.5 hours just to get 56 miles outside of Boston. So around 5:15 Wednesday morning, yes 12 whole hours later, we rolled into Virginia Beach. Chuck said it was just like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, except just Automobiles.

Wednesday was a nice relaxing day which was needed after only about 3-4 hours of sleep. All of the women of the house took the younger girls to the movie theater to see the new Disney princess movie, Frozen, which everyone loved, including the adults.

The rest of the day we spent doing grocery runs, prepping food for the next day, eating a yummy ham dinner, baking pumpkin bread and pumpkin pies, listening to Chuckie play guitar while the girls took turns singing along, and watching movies.

Thanksgiving Day we were all up early. We had breakfast, watched the Macy's Parade in our pajamas, colored turkeys and other things on some coloring sheets Shawn had for everyone, learned the Cups song, did crafts, wore festive hats, and colored some more.  Oh and I got to pump the turkey full of buttery goodness before it got cooked. :)

My parents and sisters kept me updated throughout the day on their Thanksgiving in Louisville.  They spent the morning with my tiny little Grandma deWitt.

 Later in the day when they were at my other Grandma's house, we got to skype with them and all of my cousins and aunts and uncles! We love FaceTime, especially on holidays.

Finally it was time to eat dinner. I made sure I didn't stop eating until I was miserable, as that's my personal Thanksgiving tradition.

That night we cleaned up, watched the Lady Gaga and the Muppets special (more on that in my next post) and watched the David Blaine magic special.

Friday, me and all the guys (all THREE of them...they are sadly outnumbered by the ladies) went to the outlet malls in Williamsburg. It was insanely busy, as one might assume it would be on Black Friday, but fun. Chuck and I walked around and looked for deals but didn't end up buying anything. After the outlet mall, we headed to Busch Gardens to meet up with the van full of girls.  Busch Gardens decorates the entire park for Christmas, sells hot chocolate and wassail at every vendor, has carolers walking around singing, and they put on several shows in all parts of the park. Most of the big rides are closed (I guess because it's cold) but a lot of the kiddie rides are open, which is what we probably would have been doing anyways. Also, year round, the park is divided up into countries, so it sounded really funny throughout the day when we'd talk about where to go next and say "Well we're in England, so let's take the train over to Italy and then we'll walk to Germany from there."

We rode some rides with the girls, saw two shows with singing and dancing, drank so much hot chocolate we all felt sick to our stomachs from it, and looked at pretty Christmas lights and decorations.

This next picture makes it look like Audrey was taken on this ride against her will but I promise she wanted to go and at the end of the ride she was thrilled and wanted to do it again.

On Saturday, everyone was pretty exhausted from our day in the cold, so we made that our "chill at home day" and did just that. The girls did some more crafts, we ate more, the guys watched football, I helped the ladies shop for some Christmas gifts, we taught everyone Telepictionary, and then we watched Spiderman.

Sunday we left Virginia at 6:30am, thinking we'd get home by 4 or 4:30 that day. Of course, we didn't get home until almost 7:30.

The driving portion of the trip was awful, but it was all worth it to get to be with some family for Thanksgiving.

Full of Thanks

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Chuckie and I had a jam packed weekend of food, friends, food, family, and more food.

On Thanksgiving Eve, we went over to Faneuil Hall to check out the Christmas decorations and had dinner at the Bell in Hand. It was a fun way to kick off our long holiday weekend.

After dinner we made a stop at Toscanini's for some ice cream and then went home to skype our game night friends who were having a Thanksgiving Eve game night. Here is a picture of them skyping us. 

Hi, friends!

 Thursday morning we woke up early and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and started working on making the stuffing.  I made a HUGE mess of our kitchen but both of the stuffings turned out great- though one could have used a little more chicken broth. But I thought it was a good first attempt.

Thursday afternoon, we went to Kate and Ryan's where we were meeting friends for Thanksgiving dinner. When we got there, Kate told us Ryan had just left to go to the ER after cutting his finger while peeling potatoes. He was back after a couple of hours and didn't have to get any stitches, so it turned out ok and added some excitement to our day.

Ana was brave and volunteered to cook the turkey for everyone! She even made a turkey itinerary! Here she is checking the temperature to see if he was done.  

 The turkey was delicious!

 Only about half of the food we had out.

 Our hosts, Kate and Ryan!

Ryan gave a great toast at dinner and brought up how we've only known each other for a very short time but here we are, celebrating Thanksgiving together. This is one of the really special things about the LGO program. You make instant friends, and as my aunt said this weekend, when you're living in a city without family, your friends become your family. :)

After we all digested our food and watched some football, we played some games. 

Adam just casually whistling, trying to get his team to guess a song. I love that he's still holding his coffee mug.

On Friday we rented a car and left early in the morning to drive to Agawam, MA to see my aunt and uncle. Agawam is just outside of Springfield, MA. We spent the day lounging around, watching football and basketball, and eating. It was exactly what we wanted to do.

Midway through the day, I got a call from my cousin Aaron AKA Brother I Never Had telling me that he and his girlfriend were engaged! He was planning to announce it to our whole family that afternoon during Thanksgiving dinner and wanted to tell me since I wasn't going to be there. I was soooooo excited but also sad I couldn't be home to celebrate with them in person. Aaron and I are only a few months apart in age and grew up very close. I really felt like one of my siblings was telling me they were engaged!

Aaron and Elizabeth have been together pretty much forever, so she is already a part of our family but now will be OFFICIALLY! I'm so happy for them!

Aren't they cute!?!?!?

On Saturday, we woke up early and drove to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. It was awesome. I now know a ton of history of basketball and got to see a lot of jerseys, shoes and other artifacts from Hall of Famers.

Chuckie got to meet the cardboard version of his childhood idol.

 At the end of the museum they have a court with a lot of baskets where you can shoot hoops for as long as you want. They also have a special area for dunking practice. They had a 6 foot, 7 foot, 8 foot and 9 foot goal. Here I am dunking on a 7 foot goal.

Obviously jumping is not one of my strengths. I'm about 3 inches off the ground.

Chuck on the other hand... he's got hops.

After that it was back to my aunt and uncle's to watch more football and basketball until we left to make it home in time for the UofL vs. Duke basketball game. We had such a relaxing time in Agawam and it was great to visit with my aunt, uncle and cousin! It was also nice to be in a HOME. Our apartment is nice but it just doesn't feel like a home. It feels like an apartment.

Sunday, Chuckie did homework. I had plans to go to the mall, grocery and Walgreens, but instead I watched the Broncos game, three Christmas movies and made dinner. I think that was a good decision.

We missed our families back in Kentucky this weekend a ton but still had a great time in Massachusetts and really have SO much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving with Friends

Due to extremely pricey airline tickets and only 4 days off from school and work, we had to make the decision to stay in/around Boston for Thanksgiving this year.

We toyed with several ideas for how to spend our first married Thanksgiving, but after realizing that (my favorite idea) going to the Macy's Parade in New York would probably be just as expensive as the trip to Louisville, we decided just to stay put. Lucky for us, several of our LGO friends were in a similar situation and were also planning to stay around for the holiday.

So we are spending the holiday this year with friends. I am picturing tomorrow will be kind of like this:

Our friends Kate (SO) and Ryan (LGO) graciously offered to be the hosts for our Thanksgiving dinner and it was decided we would do it potluck style- everyone bring a dish.

I signed up to take stuffing and pumpkin bread- two things I am pretty positive I can make without screwing up!

Remember when Rachel put beef in the Thanksgiving dessert she made after mixing up two recipes? That's totally something I would do.

We are really bummed to be away from our families but excited that many of our friends are here to celebrate with. This Thanksgiving will definitely be different for us. Good, but different.

 

I'm planning to wear my stretchy Thanksgiving pants, pretend to care about football so I don't have to help in the kitchen, and hoping for a guest appearance by Brad Pitt. (All just Friends references, fyi. I promise I'll help in the kitchen!)

And hopefully THIS won't happen to anyone at our Thanksgiving:

  

But I'll be sure to let you know if it does!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

(One of my favorite scenes from Friends... ever.)