Home for the Holidays

Although it may not seem like it we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving despite the lack of a post about it.

We had Thanksgiving at my parents' house on Thursday with lots of family and food.

 

 

 

This was after we had eaten round 1.

 

 

On Friday we ate leftovers and Drew and Gracie played X-box.

Friday night we got to catch up with friends from high school and that was a blast, as always.

Saturday we had Thanksgiving with Drew's family which I somehow have no pictures of except this one:

 

 

No pictures survive Saturday night either although it was great to get to see my girlfriends and their babies.

 

 

Family, friends, babies, horses, food, and snow. It was a great Thanksgiving and we didn't waste one second of it.

 

This has been a cuhrazy last week of classes. I have been home very little and stayed one night with my Radford family and it was so good to catch up with them. I'm almost done with the semester but my University of Phoenix class started this week for me to do over Christmas break.

 

We've started receiving Christmas cards which is the best. I love receiving snail mail. 

Tonight we went to the Christmas tree lighting at Dickens of a Christmas downtown. It's 70 degrees here but no worries we're getting an ice storm tomorrow.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with family or friends and are gearing up for the holidays. It is the most wonderful time of the year, after all.

Hipster found the wiffy

This marks day 3 without Internet in our loft. Which would be no big deal if I weren't counting on these days to get all of my work done before we travel for Thanksgiving. But not to worry I've found some free "wiffy" as Nick would say on New Girl.

It is snowing, I found a coffee shop with free wiffy within a very short walking distance. Even the fact that my bag carrying my laptop broke and landed hard on the sidewalk can't bring me down today. If I'm being honest this is just how I pictured life here. Always with snow.

We've settled in. Minus our bedroom. Our luggage is still full of my shoes which I don't know what to do with, I suppose a shoe rack is in order.

My Christmas cards are addressed ready to be mailed!

 

Drew's commute is now 15 minutes as opposed to an hour and I haven't driven anywhere since I drove here Friday. Going green baby.

Ike is still adjusting. He hasn't been able to get all of his energy out but he makes a friend every time we step outside of our building. He is popular on Kirk Ave. to say the least.

I am going to need some practical wardrobe additions living here:
1. Rain coat
2. Snow boots
3. Sturdy backpack
Guess those will be my Christmas presents.

Also, I kicked ass in fantasy football this week. That doesn't happen often so I'm gonna brag.

And lastly, I'm a hipster in the city. It helps keep my ears warm.

Clearly, I can no longer string together cohesive thoughts. Sorry friends. This is my end of the semester brain. I'm an expert on reading strategies at the moment, not blogging.

Tomorrow we are heading home for turkey, family, friends and plenty of things to be thankful for. Hope you all have an awesome holiday.

Holiday Hoop-la

Here I am in probably the most hectic week of my entire semester and what am I doing? Oh, that's right I'm blogging. Help me Jesus.

Drew and I very much enjoyed our holiday festivities. We traveled to North Carolina to see some of his extended family for a quick trip. It was a great visit and we don't get to see that family nearly as much as we would like. But it was good to get to sit down and talk with them.

We left from there and headed to the Pound where there was no shortage of events. We watched my brother play 2 basketball games. Had our Christmas card pics done. Two Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday. Drinks with old friends on Friday. Two trees to help put up and we couldn't pass up some baby time with Jackson. Oh and Drew spent most everyday in the woods. It certainly didn't feel like a week off but it was a good hectic. We saw a lot of people and got to do some of the things we love about home.

But after all of the going it's nice to be back home. I get to enjoy my Christmas tree again and spend some time with our friends here for the holidays. We are having our small group Christmas party here next week and I'm very excited for that. Side note: What do you all call a gift exchange you do for a large group of people where you can take gifts from each other? My friend Nicole asked if we wanted to do "white elephant" at the Christmas party. Which I assumed was a drug reference and naturally said "of course!" I'm only partially kidding. My family has always called that "Chinese Christmas" which I'm now not sure is PC. Others have said yankee swap, but I'm not a yankee so I don't care for that. Or dirty Santa which sounds worse than white elephant to me. So I'm on the hunt for an appropriate name and taking suggestions....

In even more exciting news, I'm going to be an auntie to a sweet baby girl in April. Between my Shelby girl, sweet little Jackson and little one to come I could just squeal. I'm in no rush to have one but thank goodness for friends and family members who share their little ones with me. One of my favorite memories from the Thanksgiving holiday was Shelby (who is 2 years old mind you) saying "I've got everybody I need." Oh I could just eat her up. Not to mention getting to see some of Drew's cousins we don't get to see often. They were some of the sweetest most loving little ones. I'll just tell you, holidays are no fun without kiddos.

There was also, however, a sad realization while I was at home. My sister and I volunteered to put up my granny's Christmas tree. On our way to her house it dawned on us that neither of us know how to put lights on a tree. So we just hoped it was pre-lit.

It was not.

So after a couple of failed attempts and a pitiful phone call to my daddy, he saved the day. We still put the ornaments on it but I mean come on, Ike could have done that. The main thing is, the job was done. Nevermind that the two people who volunteered did not do it.

I blame my mother, she never allowed us to decorate the tree. And now I blame Wal-Mart & Target because the 2 trees I have bought have both been pre-lit. So the sad realization is: I'm useless. Plus those branches are prickly.

Be on the lookout for our Christmas card. And if you aren't on our mailing list here is a highlight. Feel free to print it off because honestly, who doesn't want a picture of a damn cute dog and two awkward adults on their fridge? Thanks to Drew's cousin Kacey for making us look halfway presentable, she is a magician I tell ya!