Thanksgiving part 2 (with Kyle's family)!

Kyle and I arrived in Boone around 7:00 Friday night and met Kyle's entire family at Macados for dinner. We came back to the cabin, celebrated Mike's birthday and played a crazy game of Trivial Pursuit. Then we headed to bed!

Saturday morning we all ate some pancakes, got ready then headed out to go get our Christmas trees! (Kyle's siblings always head up to Boone to get their trees, so that's why we just suggested to host Thanksgiving at the cabin). Before the trees we went over to Valley Crusis and walked around there for a while.

We had THE BEST time walking around the property picking out our tree. The weather was perfect, and we just thought it was so much fun. Tyson, Raven and Eli all were loving running around without leashes, so it was a blast for all. Rach and Mike went to the App game instead, and we won... go ASU!

Pretty pond on the property:
We all came back and played a couple games of Washers (Kyle made this game for Jamie, Mike and Brad's birthdays) then it was time for dinner! We ended up buying our turkey and ham already cooked from the Ham Shoppe in Valley Crusis, and it was delicious. It was a very easy thanksgiving meal that we put together, but it was A TON of food. I literally couldn't finish what was on my plate!

Sunday morning after breakfast everyone headed out, but Kyle and I decided to stay! We were dreading the drive back with all the traffic so we decided to stay one more night in Boone and just head back at 4:00 am Monday morning. We had the best time relaxing, playing ping pong, catching up on all of our shows (don't you just love that you can watch them all online?), and eating leftovers. It was a wonderful way to end our Thanksgiving break :)

I love the cabin when it's all decorated for Christmas. One of the owners had already put up the lights and Christmas tree so Kyle and I finished the decorating by putting up the garland!

Thanksgiving part 1 (with Leah's family)!

Wow our Thanksgiving just flew by! Our break started with an 8 hour drive to Raleigh, don't you just love traffic?!? Thanksgiving morning we (Kyle mainly) helped with tons of projects around the house since my dads back has been so hurt. We then headed over to Tara's house for Kyle to hang 2 more fans... I am so thankful I have such a handy man who's willing to help out my family. We got to hang out with the twins for a while and see Tara's huge belly!

We celebrated Thanksgiving around 4:00 with my whole family (except Nick... missed you!), Grandma, The Dews, Mama Ann & Skip (Tara's mother in law & hubby), Uncle David, Shannon, Shannon's mom, and David Mathis (my cousin) so total we had 15 people! My mom got a 19 lb turkey for the occasion and it was delicious! We had so much food, but we were all definitely in food comas afterwords... but what else is new!

Tara getting food for 3:
Umm did I say already that we missed you Nick? HAHA

The guys shot a bow and arrow outside for a while after dinner:
I played with the kiddos outside for a bit:
After the meal, Kyle and I headed back over to Tara & Jamie's to watch a movie and help Tara with a project for the Nat's room. We had a great night getting to relax a little!

Friday morning, Kyle and I went back over to Tara's to hang out with her and the twins for a while since Jamie had to be at the hospital with one of the church members. They are just the cutest things and have such big personalities. I think my favorite was when Nathan was crying and Natalie looked at me and said "He's sad. He wants his mommy". So cute :)

We then hit up some of the sales! Kohls, Staples, Home Depot, Lowes and Target and the crowds weren't too bad at all! We went back to the house and got to spend some time with Grandma, Tara and Jamie. We ate eat some delicious Chinese then the guys headed out to go "shooting". Kyle had a wonderful time, I definitely think they'll go again. As soon as Ky got back we headed out for a 3 hour drive to Boone, where Kyle's whole family was meeting us! WHEW busy couple of days!

National Cake Day?

So the other day around 2:00 at work, our boss Donna comes out of her office and says "I am just CRAVING cake". Not a second later another one of our co-workers, Laura, says "ME TOO... I've been looking at pictures of cake online b/c I'm craving it so bad." So once Donna gave her the okay Laura jumped in her car and 10 minutes later came back with such a delicious little birthday cake. Even though it was no ones birthday hahaha.

We have officially made November 17th National Cake Day, and already have an invitation on our calendars for it in 2010. Oh the benefits to working with all women :) hahaha

Some Thanksgiving Recipes!

We've had to bring a lot of desserts places lately so I decided to try out some more new recipes while I got the chance! For our Thanksgiving lunch at work I signed up for Apple Pie-- the Crumb Topped Apple Pie from Our Best Bites. This recipe looked very simple, especially with the crumb on top instead of the fancy tops like most pies have! It turned out to be very yummy.... but just a little mushy though in the very center. Not sure how to fix that problem?!

I also tried Apple Streusel Bars! A sweet danish with yummy glaze! This one was FANTASTIC!

I brought this dessert to newlyweds and I had no leftovers!! It was absolutely delicious!! Love the cinnamon on the apples... YUM!

Here is what it looked like before the glaze:

Are y'all making any new recipes for Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving at KA

We had a delicious Thanksgiving lunch at KA again this year. All the teams were assigned sides, drinks or desserts, and then the company provided the Honey Baked Ham and Turkey.

Here is our food set up:

And you can't forget all the yummy desserts:

After we finished our meals the warehouse crew gave everyone Thanksgiving cards and Jennifer (our CEO) thought it would be funny to call on people to come up and act out the quotes that were on the cards. It was definitely entertainment... and guess who got called. YUP. ME. I did an outstanding performance (with a couple interpretive dance moves) in there and ended up winning. That's right I got to bring home $12.50 (haha don't ask about the amount, yes it's random).

Here are all my co-workers:

A fun way to celebrate Thanksgiving at work for sure!

NEW MOON!!

WHAT.A.FUN.DAY! For those of you who don't know what New Moon is, it's the second book of the Twilight Series, that I (and every other girl on the planet) am absolutely addicted to. Yes the book is about vampires and werewolves, yes that is pretty creepy, but it's a love story and it's SO GOOD. Anyways the movie just came out on Thursday night, so of course we had a party!

I felt like we had been planning this day for 6 months now! We bought our tickets as soon as they came on sale for opening night, 12:01 am! Our friend from work, Angela, had everyone over after work on Thursday for us to eat and watch Twilight before hand! It was so much fun.

Look at all the yummy food.. good thing we all love to eat!

After Twilight ended most people headed out since it was a weeknight. But Lacey, Angela, Kath and I were the hard-core fans that went at 12:01! Lacey bought her and I matching shirts... because as a huge fan you can't just like the movie, you either have to be Team Edward (vampire) or Team Jacob (werewolf). Of course we are team Edward, but goodness Jacob sure looked good in that movie :)

Dancing around because that's what we do:

Showing off the t-shirt:

When we got to the theater (in Atlantic Station downtown) and had to take pictures with the posters out front:

And inside the theater. We didn't have to stand in line at all, but that was because they had already let our theater in so we ended up in the 2nd row. Don't worry it was still amazing.

Lacey, Kath and Angela:

The movie was everything we thought it would be and more. It stuck so closely to the book, and didn't leave out many scenes like I felt that Twilight did. I absolutely loved it. What a fun fun night!!! And Friday was pretty interesting with all of us only running on 2 hours of sleep. Needless to say I slept ALL WEEKEND LONG to make up for it!

Umm did I mention I made it on the news? Not only was I dressed up with Edwards face on my shirt, but I got interviewed and acted like such a crazy fan. I even ended it with "GO TEAM EDWARD". I know.... I know... Praise the Lord I don't know many people in Georgia!

Volunteering at the Atlanta Union Mission

On Saturday Kyle and I, along with about 10 other newlywed group couples headed downtown to the Atlanta Union Mission to fellowship with the men staying there, as well as deep clean our "adopted room" in the shelter. We weren't able to make the first trip down when they painted the lower half of the walls and got to know everyone. But this trip we really focused on cleaning... the dust on parts of the ceiling was layered up to about 2 inches thick! It's neat to "extreme makeover" a room for such a good purpose!

Here is our whole group in our room:

Atlanta Union Mission is a Christian ministry that brings Christ's healing power to any person in crisis through programs of rescue and recovery. It's such a neat place and they are doing such good not only in the community but in the hearts of the men that stay there. The residential recovery program offers a six to 12-month Christian curriculum with individual and group counseling, life skills training, work therapy and spiritual guidance. The 18-month transitional housing program continues the healing process. These men live in a supportive, drug-free environment while working or pursuing further education as they transition to independent living.

The room we chose to adopt is one of the transitional rooms. It was hard to get a good picture of it, but there are about 9 bunk beds in the room and really nothing else in there! They would love a sitting area where they could read. So after we get all the painting done then we'll rearrange, bring in furniture and add some lamps, curtains and paintings.

I guess they already painted the lower half of the walls this beige/gold color, and next trip we'll paint over the blue on the walls and change to a brownish color. The ceiling is very high so they want to make it feel a little cozier with warm colors.
We made a lot of progress today, and it's definitely a better environment for them to breathe in with all that dust gone. We also scrubbed off all the gum stuck to the floors and then mopped with bleach, so the floors look so much better as well! We hope we can make it for our visit next month!

Some recent purchases!

Normally I wouldn't post about the things I buy (b/c it's just groceries haha), but the items below are just so exciting to me I can't help myself! I just love getting DEALS!!

I was checking out April Foster Events blog (one of the many blogs that I follow) and she had just posted that she's moving and needs to give away her invitation stuff as long as we covered shipping! Y'all I got all of this stuff for only $15, when it would have been $170!!! Needless to say I was just ecstatic! Sky Blue Linen Paper, Metallic White Pearl and Gold envelopes, Gold Envelopments, Backing Paper for invitations, and tons of more envelopes!

I had been talking to Kyle about how we desperately needed some good candles that really smelled up our house... and Yankee candles are the way to go! My friend Jen had printed out a Yankee Candle coupon for me, buy 2 get 2 free! Well I noticed that the Christmas scents are on sale at BBB for $18 instead of $25 so I was able to use my coupon with their sale. So we got 4 large jar candles (2 Christmas scents, 2 regular) for $46 instead of 4 for $102!! What a deal!!

Lastly, I had to show you guys my new 2010 calendar that I just ordered off of Etsy. One blog that I absolutely adore is Oh So Beautiful Paper, gosh everything they post I literally drool over. Anyways she was posting her favorite 2010 calendars and I just had to order one. I love all the illustrations and letterpress techniques that Paisley Tree Press did in theirs. They are little 5x8 sheets that you hang from a ribbon ... just so cute!

And the creative packaging it came in (tissue paper and thread with a sticker)! Love it!

And those are all my fun purchases lately :)