Having Fun and Being Thankful!

First up...we don't have a podcast for you today. We were actually gone this weekend to celebrate our anniversary, so we didn't have our podcast equipment with us, and we didn't have time to record anyway!

Secondly, I'm backing up to right before the anniversary today. Trip recap coming your way later this week!

So to start out the blog stories today, I'm rewinding a full week to a really fun adventure we had! I'm not even sure how many years have passed since this little blogland space led me to "meet" a friend named Charity. (Charity, do you remember how many years ago it was?) We discovered we actually don't live all that far apart, but as tends to happen, we still never met in real life.

Charity teaches piano and has an annual recital before Christmas, and this year she was in need of a photographer for the evening. She reached out to me a few weeks ago to see if I was free and if Ryan and I could come over for the evening. We just so happened to be free, so after Ryan got off work, we scurried over with all the cameras and tripods so we could be photographers!

It was the first time we'd ever met Charity (obviously) and yet when we saw her, it was like we'd just seen her the day before! There was no weird awkwardness and wondering what to say. We just hugged and got busy putting the final touches on the recital!

The kids did a great job, and after it was over and everyone could breathe, we took "staff pictures."

 Photographers, teacher, and recital assistant!

That was such a fun night! I was so happy to finally meet her!

I spent the next day getting those pictures edited and back to her since we were leaving for our anniversary trip, and then Thursday was Thanksgiving!

We went to four Thanksgivings, people. You know the movie Four Christmases? Well we did Four Thanksgivings. 

We decided to call it the Turkey Tour Twenty-Nineteen.

One thing you should probably know about me - if you don't know this already - is that I actually don't like traditional Thanksgiving food. I don't like most turkey, because it's so dry. I am really picky about dressing/stuffing. If it rolls too far to the side of wet bread, I can't handle it. I don't really like sweet potatoes. I don't like cranberry salad or sauce or really in any form other than dried and covered in chocolate. And while I love the flavor of pumpkin with all my heart, the texture of pumpkin pie creeps me out. So there you have it! Out on most counts with the Thanksgiving food!

Our first stop was at Ryan's dad and step-mom's house. We didn't actually eat there (since we arrived about 10:30 in the morning), but we hung out for a bit and watched the parade with them. (Fun fact: the parade is actually one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving Day!)

Then we moved to the second stop on the tour: my parents' house! This was where we ate our main meal of the day, and Mom was so kind to make a few things I like to eat!

It was just the four of us this year, and we had a good time together!

Then we moved on to the third stop, which was Ryan's step-dad's extended family. We were too full to eat anything there (and by that, of course, I mean Ryan only had a small snack) and we spent most of the time talking to our brother-in-law. :)

And then we ended the day at Ryan's mom's extended family. There weren't too many people left at that one by the time we arrived, but we had fun talking to the ones who were still there! And I had half a piece of non-pumpkin pie. :)

By the time we left there, I was hungry, so Ryan was so kind:

And with that, Thanksgiving 2019 was a wrap!!