Thanksgiving

This year because of moving Mrs. Matthews health and moving her into Still Hopes we held a huge family Thanksgiving at our house. Both sets of my in laws, Mrs. Matthews, Clay, Ben and Glenn and I were all having a big lunch.

After spending Tuesday night washing china, polishing silver, rearranging furniture and decorating, Wednesday finally arrived and so did Clay and my TX/NC in laws! That evening we all opted to stay in and have pizza so we could catch up and prepare for Thursday. My other mother in law, Belinda, came over for a bit as well to say hello.

Thursday, Fred fried a turkey, Vicki and I prepped the sides and by noonish we were all gathered around our table for our Thanksgiving feast. Everything was delicious and I think we all agreed it was a wonderful holiday. Afterwards we shared photos that we found at Mrs. Matthews' house and let her tell us stories.

From our house we all went to Still Hopes to see Mrs. Matthews' new apartment. Then, the Wrights, Glenn and I also went to Laurel Crest to visit Mr. Jay, his grandfather. Returning to our house we had leftovers and I was asleep in the recliner by 7 p.m. It was fun, but exhausting!

The Wrights arrived on Wednesday and we started getting ready for Turkey Day.

Fried Turkey

Mrs. Matthews enjoying Thanksgiving

Ben decorated the pumpkin pie

Glenn, his grandmother and his dad at Still Hopes

Happy Thanksgiving From Sunny (Cold) Las Vegas!

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas was beautiful! We had a busy, but fun filled day. We started our day off with our first married meal (with Ruben, too) at Mon Ami Gabi, a wonderful French cafe at the Paris Hotel. After eating we walked through the hotel and casino. It was amazing how Paris had been recreated.

Following our Paris visit, Glenn and I did some shopping at the mall next door and then returned to our hotel to change for lunch with both sets of his parents, the Keckleys and the Kuhns at Tableaux at the Wynn. From lunch we headed with his mom, Fred and the Kuhns to the Venetian for a touch of Italy. Our plan was to do a gondola ride but with my tired feet I knew there was no way I was walking around for the two hour wait. Eventually Peggy, Penny and Ruben joined up with us for a few minutes.

After a rest back at the hotel and a shower we dressed for dinner and a show. First stop, however, was back at the Paris for a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The view was terrific, but Glenn was ready to go as soon as he stepped off the elevator. Usually heights bothered me, but surprisingly I was okay. We took a couple of pictures and headed back down, though to catch a cab back to the Wynn.

First stop at the Wynn was the gift shop for emergency shoes. My feet were killing me (I had worn new boots for the second time that day and those boots were NOT made for walking). and I needed flip flops to get through. One thing about Vegas, wear good walking shoes. Everything is sooooo big. The saleslady saved me from the $90 flips and introduced me to the best invention (and the best $20 I spent in Vegas)...."afterheelz", think Sam and Libby ballerina slippers from the 80s.

Thanksgiving dinner was with Glenn's dad and Belinda and SW Steakhouse. As were all the meals in Las Vegas, it was wonderful. From dinner we went to see Le Reve, a Cirque de Soleil type of show. It was all done in water and it was unbelievably good. There were people coming from the water, the ceiling, entrance ways....amazing. Our seats were front row and at some points the cast came up out of the water right in front of us.

It was our best first Thanksgiving!!

Breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi (one of my favorite places we ate....in our matching Puma track suits--remember we bought them late night our first night??)

Paris Hotel

after lunch at Tableux in the Wynn

at the Venetian

He called Glenn up on the stage!

view from the top --- top of the Vegas Eiffel Tower!

After a delicious dinner at SW Steakhouse it was on to Le Reve...a beautiful and amazing show

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope that all of my family and friends reading the blog had a great Thanksgiving holiday!! It has been wonderful around here!

My break started after school on Tuesday and I was so ready! I had a Columbia Alumnae Panhellenic meeting that evening and then on Thursday I did some Christmas shopping, picked up food for Thanksgiving and even wrapped some presents before our "pre-Thanksgiving" celebration. A band from Glenn's high school days was having a "reunion" so we ventured out to see them and celebrate our friend Ruben's birthday at the same time. I loved getting to hang out with Paula and Elizabeth and Paula's brother, Scott who was in town!

Paula, Ruben, me and Scott

On Thursday we went to lunch at Garibaldi's with Glenn's grandmother and after a nap headed to Kat's mom, Rita's house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Rita's friend, Diane and Scottie cooked up a wonderful spread of turkey, sweet potato souffle, mac and cheese, dressing and more! We were definitely stuffed!

Scottie and Kat right before dinner

Kat, Glenn and me after dinner!

I didn't go shopping this morning, but the boys got here before lunch. We've spent the day just hanging out and resting before we go help Kat get things ready for Scottie's birthday party tonight. What a great Thanksgiving weekend this has been so far!!

Thanksgiving Break

Its hard to believe that our five day Thanksgiving break is over and there are only 15 more (school) days until Christmas break. The break started on Tuesday night with a Jaycees event in the Vista with old friends and some new ones.

Christina, me, Rachael and Kellie at dinner

On Wednesday, I slept in and then went out to do some shopping. When Ron got off we headed to pay car taxes, the DMV for his tag (a USC tag of course!) and then more shopping.

Thanksgiving Day wasn't too early of a morning. We loaded up the car for Spartanburg where we visited my parents, Kristie and Levi and Ron's family. We came back later in the evening (Clay stayed to go to Kristie's as he was going to the game with them and Ben just decided to stay with his grandparents) and went to the Ale House, yet again, for dinner since it was one of the a few places open.

Ben, my parents and Clay

Kristie and me

Ron, Clay, Levi and Ben

Michelle's notepad --- her checkbook

Instead of getting up this year for Black Friday, I slept in again. Maggie and I went for a long, post-big eat walk and then Ron and I went out for lunch and shopping. We still found some great deals! Most particularly, Granger Owings had their Gamecock pants on sale. Ron got TWO pairs for less than the regular price of one! In additional to a few other gifts, I found a Gamecock hammock for Ron at $30 and a pair of Bolle sunglasses for me at $25!!! Friday night I started feeling a little icky so we stayed in to get ready for Saturday.

Saturday started out terrible. I woke up with a sore throat and a cold. AND, it was pouring down rain and cold. But, we had arranged to secure the table at Wild Wings for a group of us to watch the game. We got there at opening and it was already a crowd, but we got our table for 10 upstairs right in front of the big TV. As kick-off approached we waited for "2001" and Wild Wings NEVER played it. Things were NOT looking good. And then the game started.....and we all know how that ended. It was quite a disappointment. After the game, we went home and I was in bed by 7 because of feeling so terrible.


Today was our last day off and Ron also woke up with a cold. We still worked on laundry and groceries and our usual "work-mode" stuff. Now, we're hoping that by tomorrow we'll feel better as we have a few Christmas parties, a house to decorate and a volunteer night at the Salvation Army this week.

We hope that you and your family had a great Thanksgiving break!