Gobble Gobble

This year I am thankful for a whole week off at Thanksgiving.  Wow, I have been missing out while working in Corporate America.  It was so nice to have a full week off after student teaching all semester.  Only 2 more weeks left in the classroom - it has gone by way too fast.  I'm going to miss my sweet kids and am hoping to get my own classroom as soon as possible!  I have a test on Monday and Substitute training on Wednesday - then December 13, I will be done and will be a fully certified Teacher in Texas! WOW! It has been a long, yet rewarding, journey.

My break started off with fabulous bridal shower, which I will blog about later (my camera was left at mom's house).  We spent time with Brett's family who came in town for the shower also.  Monday, I saw one of my oldest friends and her kids - Brooke, my friend since Kindergarten.  Tuesday, dinner with my cousins, followed by playing a game (of course!).  Thanksgiving started off with Brett and I traveling to Mom's house and spending time with her.  We made a pumpkin pie, corn casserole and pumpkin muffins - delish.  Also, mixed in some wedding planning - worked on the invitations, which will hopefully go out Monday.  We were warned that the worst part about the wedding planning process was determining the invitation list...they were right!  It has been so hard to cut a list of 300+ people down to 200.  Pretty terrible.  Now I understand why friends were ready to elope halfway through the wedding planning process.  Vegas anyone?  

We spent turkey day at my Aunt & Uncle's house.  We had a nice size houseful of people - 12.  Brett and I decided the only way to enjoy the food was to only eat breakfast, and then wait it out until the dinner at 5.  We were starving, but well worth the wait.  I am so thankful that Brett & I both come from game-playing families.  We played Taboo and pictionary - a game we never really played too much while growing up, but it was a lot of fun!  Brett and I had our eye on a Dyson in one of the Target Black Friday Ads.  I have never been out on Black Friday - but we decided to dip our toes in the water and see what it was all about.  I somehow stayed up until midnight, against my will of course.  This past year I think I have turned into a grandma by 9 p.m. - I'm just tired!!  Anyways, we drove up to Target, and the parking lot was a nightmare with an estimated 700 people in line, wrapped around the backside of the building.  No thank you.  We then drove to Kohl's to check out the same exact scene.  So we went home and went to sleep because that was the only option!  The next morning, Brett was still thinking that Dyson was a good deal (both of our vacuums are old/don't really work) so we went up to Kohl's and snagged the last one + we got $75 Kohl's cash, awesome!  We tried out the vacuum last night and we were so impressed, I know that sounds pretty lame, but seriously, it is so much better than the old vacuum I had before.  After our Black Friday Steal, we went to Brock & Sarah's and had Indian Food!  It was quite a treat  - my first time to experience food from that region.  I'm thankful to have some of both of our families to celebrate the holidays with.