Thanksgiving and such

Ben and I had a few firsts this week as a married couple. First Thanksgiving, first major school holiday that no longer applies to us, and first decorating for Christmas. Good times.

Thanksgiving day started earlier than we would have liked it to, because now that we are in the real world we can no longer sleep til 10. So we woke up around 7 and had a discussion about starting our own Thanksgiving traditions. I mean, this would be a good year to start these things but we could not think of anything clever. So instead of starting meaningful traditions we decided to splurge on Hardees breakfast (can't beat their biscuits) and we watched Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Classy. And also not a good call seeing as how a Thanksgiving feast was being prepared at my parents' house. We had dinner with my family, my Dad's parents, and my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was a good time, despite being surrounded by Bama fans and their constant reminders of the impending Iron Bowl. (side note: ugh.) Dinner consisted of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, sweet potato casserole, asparagus, corn, rolls, apple pie, and pumpkin roll. Great job Mom, and everyone else who contributed! I brought a veggie tray, so technically I helped. Kinda.

Ben had to work on Friday so I went shopping with my Mom and sisters. We didn't get out there 'til nine so we missed the craziness of the super early shopping, but if you know me and my sisters then you know that nine was a pretty big deal for us. Props to Jen and Jamie for making it. We bought some good things for Christmas, but no crazy deals. I got to see my old roommate Cile and her husband Adam for a few minutes while we were shopping, and I'm glad they were in town from Memphis. Wish we had more time though.

Friday night I picked Ben up from work and we headed to Holly Pond to spend time with Ben's family. We made it just in time to participate in their after Thanksgiving tradition of CiCi's Pizza and going to the movies. And after the movies we played Dirty Santa with gifts we all bought from WalMart for $15. Another reason being married has benefits: you can play as a team in games like Dirty Santa. I stole The Office trivia game and was trying to hide it under after the game was over, but then Joe stole it from me. Not cool. So then I stole Ben's gift from him so he could steal back The Office trivia game. Moral of this story: if you have a team member in Dirty Santa then you get to go home with The Office trivia game. YAY! If any Office fans want to show their knowledge on the show, then come on over and we will play.

Today we set up Christmas decorations. We had anticipated it to be stressful, but it was a lot easier than we thought. We picked out our tree from Home Depot because Ben still had a few gift cards. It was easier than I have ever experienced because we could just put it in the back of Ben's truck and drive away. I have always had to tie the tree to the top of the car which is just a pain. So we find our "perfect tree" and head home to bring it up the stairs. After some slight rearranging of furniture we set it set up in our tree stand with surprisingly no trouble. We don't have lots of ornaments on the tree, but I like it that way. It gives us room to grow. We also decorated around the apt and I think everything looks good so far. Well, everything looks good for me being the most uncreative person in all of Huntsville, and probably Alabama.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Looking forward to hearing all the stories (especially about Vegas, C and D!)