Thanksgiving Recap

I am so behind. It's been over a week since Thanksgiving and no post.

Ryan and I drove to Jackson on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This is the first time we have made this drive together by choice -- the last time was because our flight got cancelled and we had to get home that day. We normally fly but flights were too expensive this year. So, we loaded Admiral in the truck and off we went. Admiral likes the car, but he is very anxious the whole time he is in the car. Because its a 7 hour ride, we give him a little medicine to zonk him out so that he doesn't drive us crazy. He still did a pretty good job of that but he finally fell asleep. He likes to be right next to us and this is as close as he could get.

We arrived late on Tuesday.  Ryan spent some quality time on the couch watching football and putting together puzzles (there is always one waiting when we get to my parents). On Wednesday, Mom and I did the grocery shopping. Mom's sister Becky arrived with Grammy mid afternoon on Wednesday and the cooking started. Golden Bakes, Dressing, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatoes and Pecan Pie were on the Wednesday list. Grammy made the Golden Bakes, Mom made the Sweet Potatoes and the Pecan Pie, I made the Green Beans. The Dressing was a group effort! Becky got the dishes cleaned as quick as we messed them up.

Ryan and I hit the town on Wednesday night for Keifers and Passenger Jones at Hal and Mals.

Thursday finally arrived and brought my brother and his family -- James, Shelley, Helmi and the dogs, Gus and Sam. Admiral was very excited to see his cousins and they went straight to playing in the back yard. Helmi, Grammy and Ryan put together princess puzzles while the Turkey finished cooking. Then, Helmi helped put the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes.

We sat down to a wonderful lunch about 2pm. It was nice to sit around the table as a family, something we do so seldom these days. We missed the rest of our families that were not with us but remembered the Thanksgivings past when we were all together. (Blogspot has decided to rotate some of my pictures and I can't get them straight.)

After lunch, we just hung out... coloring, playing with the dogs, Grammy cracking pecans!


The most well behaved dogs... when you hold a treat above their nose. Sam, the black hound dog, is not the most active of the bunch. But he sure kicked it into gear when James was throwing the rawhide bone. He could care less about the other toys but he wanted that bone.


On Friday, Helmi woke up with a fever but once the Tylenol kicked in was ready for a tea party! James, Shelley and Helmi headed back to Hattiesburg on Friday morning. Ryan and I decided to brave the mall that afternoon to try to find him some winter clothes. We found a few good deals at Belk's. Somehow I was able to keep him away from Best Buy... Thanksgiving Miracle?

Friday night, Ryan and I went to my friend Byron's new coffee house, Sneaky Bean's, in the Fondren area of Jackson. Byron has turned an old house into an awesome little coffee house, with each room having tables, chairs and couches. There was live music that night, we just missed it. They serve coffee and smoothies, breakfast, lunch and desserts and have beer and wine after 5. Ryan is the coffee drinker in our family and had the Hawaiian Hazelnut and said it was great. We bought a bag of vanilla nut to take home and Ryan has enjoyed it for his morning coffee.  

It was great to be home in Jackson. It had been since April and the Tornado that Ryan was there, so it was nice to be there and things be more normal. Saturday we made our trek back to Texas. It was a long drive and we were ready to be home. Admiral didn't zonk out as quick and it was misty rain or rain the whole way home. It took us an hour longer to get home than to get to Jackson. We rushed in and rushed back out to a birthday dinner for Ryan's brother Kevin. It was a long day but worth it for the time at home.

Sunday, we got the Christmas lights up (more on that later) and then Helmi's fever hit me Sunday night and its been a long week of feeling cruddy. The house is decorated for Christmas and I am starting to feel the spirit.

I plan to post all the food recipes over the next few days/weeks... since our Thanksgiving dishes are pretty much our Christmas dishes too.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!