Thanksgiving

After the wedding, my family went to Boston for Thanksgiving and the wedding open house there. We headed to Shaun's parents house for Thanksgiving. Most of the morning was spent prepping. SJ convinced his parents to get a turkey fryer the night before which did not disappoint! The last few years we've gone over to a friends house for Thanksgiving. They usually have a fried turkey and a baked turkey and the fried one disappears in seconds. It was delicious, but the prep for the turkey was not so delicious. Shaun was a champ.

There was a lot of nephew play. Shaun is obsessed with his mini me.

(no joke, he looks so much like Shaun as a child)

We also got to go shopping for a yummy-smelling Christmas tree.

Clark was loving his life running through the trees like a maze. 

Then of course we always try to take a few family pics in my in-laws beautiful backyard. These Utah mountains mean so much to me! I am always so shocked how huge they are when I come home. 

The Jo-bro's

Thanksgiving Vacaaay

Thanksgiving break was so much fun. It started out with an amazing concert by JM! We have made it our goal that whenever John Mayer comes to town we have to go see him. Phillip Phillips opened for him so that was an unexpected treat as well. John changed his style of music recently which we were so opposed to but we bought his latest album and took it on a road trip with us. By the end of the trip we were fans of the new John (not to mention double points for dating my main lady KP).

We woke up the next day and headed to Columbus, Ohio to have Thanksgiving with our Wernli friends for the second year in a row. They are always so great with making us feel like one of the fam. The weekend was filled with Black Friday shopping, Settlers of Catan & Puerto Rico, eating eating eating (including some speciality items on the menu: orange pancakes and abelskivers) and staying up till 3am talking. We would shortly regret our late nights in the morning when their kids would get up at 7:30 but then we would stay up late again. Hilarious! We have not seen these friends since they moved away from Georgia in July so it was such a great time.

Don't worry, we CHOSE to sit at the kids table for dessert

party van

boys love their games

i blame black friday

Well I have been sick. Sick since Tuesday night I believe. I went to the doctor on Wednesday to rule out strep so I could still maybe attend Thanksgiving if I was able to stand. Which was great because miraculously I felt all better on Thursday. 

     *side note: I am so grateful for friends and their family, who welcome strangers to their dinner table on an important holiday. One of Shaun's work friends invited us over to their Thanksgiving dinner and after about 45 minutes, we were apart of the family. I love that. I hope my family is the same. 

Thursday night arrived and we changed the shopping plan. We were supposed to be waiting in line for the gates to open to the beautiful Target at 9 but games of Werewolf got too out of hand. Long story short, at about 11:30 we made it to Target on our way to The Mall of Georgia. After people watching and eavesdropping for a good hour in the Forever 21 line I came to the conclusion that I am really so much more classier than at least 85% of that Georgian population... (long story)

We left The Mall of Georgia and much to SJ's dismay, the Banana Republic sales weren't up to par so we made the best-awful decision at 3 AM to head to the outlets. We got home around 5 and still were going strong with our online purchases, then went to bed shortly after. I woke up at noon the next day coming so close to what hangovers would feel like. So not worth it. 

Basically, that night KILLED ME. Threw me under the bus. My throat was down for the count and my body went slowly down with it. Shaun was hilariously kind taking care of me. I couldn't yell or speak for that matter so whenever I needed something I would play I-tunes from my phone and it would start playing on our Apple TV out in our living room so when he would hear some Michael Buble or Celine Dion christmas songs, Nicole needed something. I admit, there were some times where I was accused of being the boy who cried wolf...but I loved hearing my music outside and having the husband come running so can you blame me?

The decision about ever going Black Friday shopping again is still being decided. But I think that is how I am every year. But this year sure got me. I have never experienced something so sad and pathetic than being starving and eating just to fill your stomach. Not having the pleasure of your sense of TASTE. I have never had it totally 100% gone before. And that is just sad. Flavors are going up on my thankful list this year.