Thanksgiving holiday

Well, the Thanksgiving holiday is coming to an end and its been wonderful. We drove in Tuesday night to Allen and spend that night and the next day with my family. Ben golfed with my dad and I spent the day with my mom. We just talked and drank coffee and ate and looked for recipes for the next day. So refreshing. Wednesday night, we went to Arlington to spend time with Ben's family from Mississippi. If you know us well, you won't have a hard time guessing what we played with them...yes that's right...Rock Band! It was a roaring good time with cousins and aunts and family.

Thanksgiving day, we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house to eat our first Thanksgiving dinner. My cousin Emily recently got engaged so everyone but us (we'd already met the lucky guy) got to meet her fiance Preston for the first time. Oh I remember those days...such a special, sweet time of life. There are 4 girl cousins on my mom's side that I have grown up with. I'm the oldest of the 5 of us and its been fun to grow up with each of them and see how each year, so many changes happen. After a delicious lunch, people not at the "kids" table, shared memories of old Thanksgivings with people some of us have never met. It was so fun to hear funny stories about our family members we never met. Later in the afternoon, we headed on to Arlington for our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner. Delicious and fun as well, but different. Each family has their own traditions and I love them both. We also suffered through the Aggie game that will not be spoken of ever again.

Yesterday, we got up at, yes, 4:30 am to go shopping. I'd never done that before and it was more for fun than for actually getting a good deal. I went with Ben's high school age cousins and my sister-in-law Cherish. Our goal: be one of the first 200 people at Forever 21 so we could get a scratch-off card to win a gift-card. To no one's great surprise, none of us one anything but it sure was exciting. I bought 2 shirts at 6:30 am in the morning, not on sale. We shopped a little longer and left the mall about 8:15 am. It was quite strange to see so many people at 5:30am. Usually the only people I see at that time of day is either no one because I'm asleep or just Ben as I roll out of bed. Very strange feeling.

The rest of the day was more shopping, relaxing, 3 episodes of What not to Wear with Pat, delicious food, and some sudoku. I feel fully refreshed and feel like I can go back to work for 3 weeks before the next holiday!