Thanksgiving Weekend Review

I guess I have never really understood all the hype around thanksgiving. Especially when you are an "in-towner" (aka...not going to go visit anyone) To me, it is like one big meal (which by the way my family does not need an excuse to have...this happens all the time) followed by 4 days of wondering what I am supposed to be doing.

I just kept feeling like, "it's thanksgiving weekend! I should be doing something. And I can't really call my friends because I'm sure THEY are doing something." If someone could please explain what you are all doing, that would be great.

But I did manage to have a pretty great Thanksgiving Weekend. Here are some highlights (ok fine, this is everything...any time holes you see, I was watching TV or taking a nap)

So Thursday morning has officially become my favorite part of tgiving weekend. My friend David and I started the tradition last year (not sure you can really call it a tradition yet but....we do) to runt eh Turkey Day 5K. Last year, I was very hard core about the training. THis year....not so much. But I managed to impress myself and run about 2.5 of the 3.2 miles.

The weather cooperated and it is seriously SO hard to believe that only one week ago today, I was running outside in a zip up and today, I can't feel my hands or cheeks after walking from my car to the coffee shop. It is FREEZING.

If one HUGE meal wasn't enough for my family, we decided to have a Thanksgiving Day brunch as a precursor to the Thanksgiving Day dinner (we like to eat....)
Dinner was delicious. I was in charge of sweet potatoes and gotta say, I did a DAMN fine job (thank you Food Network and Rachel...) My nephew was in charge of decorations...this was my favorite.

And we even started a new tradition of "What I'm thankful for Afikomen." Basically, we all wrote what we were thankful for, hid them around the house and my nephew had to find them and guess whose was whose. Very fun...next time, I would like a bit more competition. I liek to beat the pants off 6 year-olds.

Speaking of nephews, here is my moment to shamelessly show you two of THE cutest kids on earth....seriously. How is it possible that everyone thinks they have the cutest ones on earth?? Clearly, I do :)
After dinner, I burned off most of the calories laughing hysterically with my oldest friend in the world Alison...

Friday night was basically a huge high school reunion and it was actually really fun. Could have gone either way....you know...lots of room for "oh my god, it's X person. Ihaven't seen that kid since I burned his hair off on the bunsen burner in Chemistry." But it was good. Fun to see people and we are finally at an age where when there is someone you just don't really care about, you can just nod and wave from a distance. No more awkward "so what have you been up to for the last 10 years?" conversations which is a huge plus.

Saturday, I had a bunch of people over. Nothing too exciting...but very fun. I made a recipe that called to celery. But only like 3 stalks of celery. And did you know that you have to buy like 3 pounds of celery at a minimum?

Well, for any of you who don't know, I HATE celery. Everyone always asks me why and tries to convince me that it has no taste. I completly disagree. I hate it. So, I made bumps on a log. Seriously....when was the last time you had one of these suckers? They were very popular.
Sunday was a very dangerous day. My "friends" (and I put this in quotes because of the temptation they put before me) Jeremy and Kara thought it would be a good idea to just "look at some puppies."

Now I'm not crazy. I know this is a terrible time to buy a puppy. I don't even know what I'll be doing in the near future. Imean cmon...this is what Humane Society stories are made of.

Anyway, I was convinced and told that we were just looking.

Needless to say, I fell madly in love. I mean...cmon....are you for real?
I managed to resist and for now am staying far, far away from any breeder.

Sunday night, the ladies and I got decked otu in our purple and cheered the vikes on to an exciting win... Lindsay, a Bears fan got us the tickets. Probably not cool that we cheered very loudly every time the Bears through an interception in her ear. Too bad Lindsay. You've lived here 5 years. C'mon....get some purple on.

So, that is it! All around a great weekend...still not sure if that is what you are "supposed" to do during these mysterious 4 days of no activity but any time I get to go for a jog, eat ridiculous amounts of food, hug my nieces and nephews, look at puppies and get rid of excess celery, I'm all for it.

xoxo,
Debra