A Week of Thankfulness Fun

Happy December ladies!

Wooohoo, it's time for the BEST SEASON EVER!

SERIOUSLY
CAN'T
WAIT!

Buuuuut, before we get all Advent up in here,
it's time to recap a wonderful Thanksgiving week.

Yes, I got a whole week off this year whoop whoop!

Since I'm married now [cahrazy] this was my
FIRST holiday with my NEW family.

Aka my FIRST time away from
my family for the holiday season.
[I called first Christmas about one year into dating haha].

I never was the girl that chose to
travel away from my family on holidays
for a boyfriend. Just wasn't my thing.

So this year as excited as I was for NEW traditions,
there was a part of me that was a bit sad to be
away from my family for the first time.

However, it wasn't as heartbreaking as I anticipated.

There was way too much that went on last week for me to do a normal
recap post, so prepare for a wordy post today :)

We left DC Saturday morning and enjoyed a leisurely

drive to Ohio and arrived at C's parent's house 

a lil after dinner time.

We originally were going to travel on Tuesday,

but C wanted to make it home for his nephew's

FIRST BIRTHDAY party. 

So, we did!

SUNDAY

After arriving late Saturday night, we passed out because we had to wake up SUPER early, to arrive at his brother and SIL's house a hour before the party. The surprise went PERFECT and we enjoyed coffee and doughnuts with them before everyone showed up at their house.

The lil guy is so loved, they had about forty people show up for 

his first birthday party and he did so well with everyone. 

He was NOT a fan of his michigan smash cake though ;)

It was wonderful catching up with C's family and they were super excited

to see us in town early which was nice to hear. 

I also LOVED hearing how much everyone loved our wedding again,

it was brought up in almost every conversation I had

which made my heart warm. 

The day was perfect for us, but it was SO WONDERFUL

to hear that everyone else LOVED IT too!

After the party was over C and I headed into downtown Cincy

to watch the Cyclones which is the city's AHL hockey team.

For $26 we were able to sit in the FIRST row

and had an awesome view of the action which 

was so different from our season ticket seats to the Capital's.

The team lost but it was still a super fun experience.
After the game we went home for dinner and then
hit the hay early as we were super tired for the late arrival Saturday
and extremely early morning Sunday.

MONDAY
We finally were able to sleep in and we enjoyed being lazy
throughout the morning.
We decided to take his grandparent's to lunch and it
was a lot of fun.

The food was delicious and the company was wonderful.
It was so nice spending quality time with his family
just the two of us.

Once lunch was over we spent time just hanging out
at the house with his nephew.
I mean this face, so cute right?!

TUESDAY

We were up early again because we headed East to AMISH COUNTRY
with C's mother and aunt.

The drive was gorgeous as we woke up to a beautiful snow.
Can I just say how much I love glorious snow?
I'm not one that has to have worked canceled or a foot to enjoy
it's beauty,I just love a good magical snow.

Seriously, how can you NOT love this?!?

Amish country was incredible.

There was AMAZING furniture and delicious food too.

C and I were so taken with the furniture,
that we bought our FIRST married piece, YAY!

We found a beautiful new entertainment center
that is so well made it will last forever.
I told C that we will be budgeting to buy ALL
of furniture from this area when we buy a new home.
It might be a bit more expensive, but it's better than IKEA
stuff that will fall apart in a few years.

I wish I had taken pictures to share, but I was too busy looking
around to take out my phone.
#badblogger ;)

After we were done shopping we headed to the bakery
and indulged in cream horns, banana bread, cookies sandwiches
and doughnuts as big as our head.

SOOOOO GOOOD!

We perused for a bit longer and then we headed home.

When we got home, C's mom surprised us
and told us she wanted to buy us the
entertainment center for our Christmas gift.

SHOCKED! She is just too kind.

There was another delicious family dinner
and another early night,
man I LOVE SLEEPING during the holidays.

WEDNESDAY
Was kind of a chill day. C and I both had to do some work
so the morning was spent doing just that at home.

Once the work was done it was time to bake my
chocolate mousse pie for dinner the next day.

I was invited to a girls night with some of ladies
of C's family and it was such a fun time.
We drank wine and just chatted, like I do with my sisters.
It's nice to REALLY feel like part
of the family now.

I called it a night early since we had a Turkey Trot
the next morning before Thanksgiving started.

Thanksgiving Day aka yummy food and fun family day! 

Originally we had planned to get up early and run the Turkey Trot 10K downtown in the city. We were excited to run, until the night before it was only 20 degrees. We set an over under of 25 degrees the night before and when we woke up it was a balmy 18 degrees with a windchill of 7 degrees. 

YEAH, NO THANKS!

We rolled back over and went back to sleep in the warmth :)!

When it was time to wake up [much later] we started the process
of getting ready while watching the PARADE!
I was able to FaceTime with my family while we
were getting ready and it was lots of fun.

They were able to run a race and were starting the
process of making breakfast.

I expected to be sad when I talked with them,
because I would miss being home,
but it actually was just fun chatting.
I passed them around the house and it was fun
watching the inlaws talk to one another.

Sadly this was the only picture taken throughout the whole day,
but I think it's a winner :)!

After chatting with the family we headed to family #1's for brunch.
It was so much fun, with lots of delicious food.
We stayed there for a few hours, watched football
and I enjoyed some girl time with other ladies in the family.

People started leaving around three so we headed to
family #2's for our Thanksgiving dinner celebration.

The place was set up so nicely and everyone was enjoying
some wine and apps when we arrived.

I chose to save room for food and went straight for the wine. ;)

Dinner was delicious and the company was great of course.
I was completely stuffed when we were done eating,
everything tasted so good.

I took a break from eating to watch my COWBOYS
dominate as usual on Thanksgiving, whoop whoop!

We enjoyed dessert and then it was back home
to try and stay awake during the last football game.
Guess who didn't stay up too late...heehee

FRIDAY

We chose to sleep in and not head out with all the crazies for Black Friday. 

It was nice to enjoy a leisurely morning with is parents too. 

We veneered out around 10am and actually scored some pretty

sweet deals at Macy's, Kmart and the AT&T store.

Honestly, I'm still not 100% what we bought ;)!

However, I'd say we are 90% done with our Christmas shopping

and I'm super stoked about it!

The rest of the day was spent finishing up the first round of 

Christmas cards 

[someone forgot you're supposed to send them out to your wedding list

 and originally didn't order enough originally, oops]

and relaxing before we headed out to the zoo.

The Cincy zoo puts on Christmas lights and we joined 

C's brother, sil and our lil nephew for dinner 

and then went and enjoyed the lights.

It was spectacular, cold, crowded and tons of fun.

Once we got home, we finished packing up

and wrapped presents to leave with his parents

before hitting the hay.

SATURDAY

We decided to head home on Saturday to miss all the nasty holiday traffic that everyone else dealt with on Sunday. This time we took a scenic route home to pick up our new furniture [still so excited about our first married purchase heehee] and to just try something new. 

It was a perfect choice and so beautiful. I was reminded HOW GORGEOUS our world is and how amazing our God is to give us such a majestic place to live. 

Even though we moseyed home, we weren't home too late which was nice. 

There was time to unpack and get ready for Sunday

and watch some football too. 

Sunday was spent doing laundry and prepping for the week.

We are officially back on the eating healthy and working out like crazies

bandwagon and I'm so ready for it.

I've probably gained ten pounds and am ready to 

get shredded again :)!

How was your holiday? What was your favorite part about it?

****************

Linking up with sami, meg and leanne