Our Thanksgiving, the WORST Iron Bowl Ever, and Decorating for Christmas

Before Christmas sneaks up on me anymore that it already has, I guess I should recap our Thanksgiving…

This year we stayed in town for Thanksgiving. We alternate Thanksgiving every year with our families so that we aren’t rushing like crazy to get to both places in the same day. Travis’s mom’s family (the Dvoraks) always have a big all-day Thanksgiving celebration. We each lunch, play games, and eat leftovers for supper. It’s always a lot of fun to get together!

I dressed our little turkey up in appropriate Thanksgiving attire before we went to Uncle Allen and Aunt Debbie’s house. (Yes, I bought her a onesie that she only wore once. It’s embarrassing!).

Travis has a huge family (at least compared to what I’m used to), and I think Miss B was pretty overwhelmed when we first got there. Lots of people, lots of noise, and everyone was wanting to say hello to her. She warmed up to it after a little while though!

Grandma Dvorak and her first great-grandchild!

Aunt Emily hadn’t seen Brooklyn in forever!

After lunch, we’ll usually pull out games or puzzles. This year, Travis and some of the guys played a game called Axis and Allies that literally lasted at least 8 hours. Whew! That is definitely NOT my type of game. Travis usually enjoys “tedious” games, but even that one was a little long for him.

I decided after seeing some cute ideas on Pinterest that I wanted to make “turkey cupcakes” this year. Although Travis was envisioning actual turkey-flavored cupcakes (yuck!), I had something a little bit different in mind…

I thought they turned out pretty cute, and that weren’t that hard to make. This would be a fun project to do with Brooklyn when she gets older. The only thing I would do differently in the future is to refrigerate them afterward. For some reason, candy corn tends to melt after sitting in chocolate icing for a while…which turns into a mess! :)

Looking at ads with Aunt Alisha

So, Thanksgiving Day was a lot of fun! Brooklyn was in a decent mood for most of the day. She took a couple of naps while being held, and she ate a TON! I gave her parts of our lunch and dinner that were soft and easy to swallow (sweet potatoes, asparagus, mashed potatoes, carrots, rolls), and she loved all of it. No wonder she doesn’t want to go back to eating purees!

I briefly thought about going out to do some Black Friday shopping, but unless going to Publix counts, I didn’t end up doing any shopping on Friday. I just didn’t see anything in the ads that I felt like I HAD to have. Plus, having a baby makes it a lot more tempting just to stay home. I know, how boring. So we ended up just taking it easy for the most part. Mom and Dad came up that afternoon for a quick visit. They hadn’t seen Brooklyn in a whole month. Mom, especially, was having some serious withdrawals!

Saturday was a day that I’d like to erase from my memory for a long time. Unfortunately, we will never hear the end of it, and I’m sure it will be talked about for the rest of our lives. Can you tell I’m still upset about it? I know it’s just a game, but I would’ve rather lost in a blowout than lost the way we did. If we hadn’t had so many chances to win, I think I would’ve gotten over it by now. And the worst part is…not only did we blow our chances for another national championship, we probably propelled Auburn right into it. Argh. The more I think about it, the more mad I get. It’s just a game…it’s just a game. By the way, I didn’t used to be this big of an Alabama fan, but something about going to school there and marrying a huge Alabama fan will do that to you :)

This is Gabby lying on my belly before the game. From the look on her face, she must have had a bad feeling about how it would end…

At least one of us was in the good mood after that game! :)

We ended up salvaging the evening after we got home by decorating our Christmas tree. After Brooklyn went to bed, we turned on the Christmas music while we put the tree up, and it was actual a very nice evening.

I’ve since bought Brooklyn a Christmas stocking and her very own Christmas tree, and I think our decorating is now complete. We still have no outside decorations (except for a wreath on the front door), but we’re planning to buy some when they go on sale after Christmas this year. (Right, Travis??).