Hunter and I are blessed to have 3 moms and 3 dads! The bonus to having a big family means more Thanksgiving dinners!!! Unfortunately all of our family lives two hours or more away so we don't get to visit everyone on the holiday so we get to celebrate holidays for weeks!
We had our first Thanksgiving the weekend before with Hunter's mom's side of the family. We were lucky and got to host so it made decorating fun! I love setting the table for fun dinners and I got to use lots of my fun wedding gifts! (Still haven't used the china, but we will one day!)
Hunter and I used this day as our CT cheat day. We were good to start with and had our smoothies before dinner to prevent over-indulging and I think that helped! Everyone helped cook and brought food, Hunter smoked a turkey, and we drank the wine from our winery visit last month! Everything was perfect! We sat by the fire all evening watching football and catching up, just like family visits should be!
I'm very blessed by the flexibility in my work schedule and Hunter's extra PTO this year so we headed to St. Louis to see my family for the week of Thanksgiving!
We loaded up the dogs and were headed north Tuesday afternoon! I have to brag that we have the cutest, best dogs ever! They didn't love staying in a hotel, but they were so well behaved the entire trip!
Our first stop in St. Louis was Imo's Pizza and brought it back to my parents. Those who grew up in St. Louis and have moved away, know just how exciting authentic STL style pizza with fresh provel cheese is. (I bought 5 pounds of the cheese to bring back to Dallas!)
We enjoyed lots of family dinners and family visits! I miss my niece and nephews so much, it was great watching them play and seeing how much they have changed in the past few months.
My grandma has had some health problems this year so it was nice to bring Hunter over to visit and see some of my cousins. She was interested when she realized I was an OT and asked me to show her the exercises her therapist left for her to do. I also modified her phone, remote and made some other recommendations to my family to help them take care of her. It made me feel really good to help out because being so far away, I feel like I can't help my family how I would like to. She was happy and rewarded me with some of my Aunt's famous brownies!
Our Thanksgiving was also our Christmas since hunter and I can't make it up again this year. It was beyond cute watching the kids open their presents (and everyone else's!). Kids make Christmas so much more fun and so much more exciting. Mom and Dad got us a food saver and I can't wait to start freezing some stuff! Mom knows I'm frugal and hate wasting anything, so that was the perfect gift!
Saturday was the Texas A&M vs Mizzou football game in my old college town, Columbia. Our original plan was for my best friends and their significant others and my parents to all go to the game together, but unfortunately my Dad got sick and my friend's grandma went into the hospital so we were down a few important that day. We had a great day, but they were missed!
I had so much fun showing Hunter around MY campus. Seeing everything there brings back so many memories of the years I spent there, the friends I met and the life lessons I learned! We went downtown to our favorite pizza place then hung out in a bar I used to sneak into when I was underage!
The game is so important to us not only because those were the schools we attended, but because the Mizzou/A&M rivalry is where we got engaged 3 year ago! My parents got us the tickets as our 2 year wedding anniversary gift and it was a perfect way to celebrate!
Just like the weekend we got engaged, Mizzou won! Hunter was depressed, but later admitted it was a fun game because of the energy in the stadium.
I felt like it was freshman year again, and I had my best friend of 15 years at my side. We spent more time chit chatting and laughing than we did following the actual game, but that's what made it so great.
My Mom still came along even though my dad got sick and she had so much fun hanging with us "kids"! We loved having her and we laughed so many times telling her college memories she probably still wishes she never knew!
We got back so late Saturday night that we slept in late on Sunday and got a late start! Just like every other morning we were there, mom had an awesome breakfast ready for us! We were beyond spoiled this trip like we are every visit. It never gets easier leaving my parents house, but knowing that I get to go back home to Dallas with my husband and puppies makes it bearable till the next visit!
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