First Turkey!

This Thanksgiving was super special because it was my first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, my first time hosting a guest on a holiday, and only our second big feasting holiday without the deliciousness of our parent's cooking skills! It was so nice to have Carol with us for the whole weekend!! This time last year, I don't think we'd have ever guessed we'd all be on the opposite side of the country from our families! Instead of all three of us braving the crowded airports, she drove down from Ohio to celebrate with us!

According to my two critics, my first Thanksgiving dinner was a hit! This was only my third time cooking a whole bird and the first time I made a turkey! The recipes I found were delicious, and since I always follow recipes to the letter (I know you hate that babe, but it means it turns out good!), it was great! My 9-pound turkey was stuffed with a delicious semi-homemade nut stuffing, and was complimented by skillet cornbread, mashed potatoes from scratch, gravy (I cheated the gravy and made it from a packet), and sauteed squash and zucchini! We also had deviled eggs and a holiday salad for an appetizer and pumpkin fritters with vanilla ice cream for dessert! Yum! It was so relaxing to play dominoes with Carol between turkey bastings, watch football, and then watch Carol and Ryan play Rock Band when the football games started to suck. We were all ready to explode by the end of the evening and it was quite a challenge to pull Ryan away from the turkey! I knew I should have pulled him away sooner because he fell into a triptophane coma just as we started to clear the table, so Carol and I ended up doing all the dishes, even though I cooked all day! He totally owes me!!

The rest of the weekend was pretty sweet! Carol and I hit up some awesome Black Friday sales while Ryan worked early. We found the best deals at AC Moore, my favorite craft store out here (sorry family! We don't have Joann and it's bigger than Micheal's!). I needed supplies to make my Christmas wreath and wanted to get a few more decorations, scrapbook supplies, and gifts, and my whole bill should have been over $200 but it was only $84! Woo hoo! I love that place!! We also found some great bargains at Linens'n'Things (which we all know is closing), Target (always a good deal there!), the GAP (one of my all-time favorites), H&M (2-for-1 sweaters!), and Borders Books (buy a beverage, get a free pastry!)! It was a good shopping morning! We were done early enough to go back home, finally shower, have some leftovers for lunch, and then head out to Mt. Vernon to see it decorated for Christmas and see the 3rd floor of the mansion which is usually closed to the public! It was gorgeously decorated! We even got to see the Christmas camel! I know you're thinking, camel??? But when you really think about it, this whole birth of Jesus thing happened in the desert right? What were the wise men riding? Camels! One year, George Washington had a camel shipped in for Christmas for the enjoyment of his guests! He was a cute camel, but he only had on hump. After enjoying the decorations, I took Carol to my favorite monument, FDR, which she also enjoyed, and then on a drive through the city. We topped of our night with an Irish pub dinner at Ri Ra in Bethesda.

Saturday, Ryan joined us for a day of sight-seeing! We started at the Postal Museum, which was exciting because non of us had been there before. Ryan didn't like it so much, but Carol and I actually looked at the exhibits and read the displays, so we liked it! Then we went in to Chinatown for lunch at Potbelly (yum!) and a brisk walk to the National Archives, which we decided not to see because the line was crazy long! Our fourth stop of the day was the newly renovated American history museum. I really wanted to see "The Star Spangled Banner" (yup, the actual flag!) but that line was also crazy long because the whole museum was freaking crowded! We were only able to enjoy one lengthy exhibit which was all about war: very informative and interesting! To cap-off our war experience, we visited the WWII Memorial which is probably one of the coolest things George W. Bush did. It's a beautiful memorial! The last time Carol was in the area, for a Gamma Phi Beta conference, the memorial wasn't complete yet and she really enjoyed the final product. We finished up our sight-seeing adventure at the White House which is starting to look like Christmas! I'm looking forward to seeing it all decorated!! We finished our night with some turkey melts (thanks leftovers!) followed by ditching Ryan to go see "Four Christmases"! Hilarious!! Seriously!

Sunday morning, Carol drove home and Ryan then ditched me for the highlight of his weekend: free tickets to see the Giants whip the Redskins!! Woo hoo!! Go Giants!! I took advantage of being alone all day to put up our decorations! It really feels like Christmas in our little apartment now!! I'll take pictures next time I'm home during daylight so you can see how cute it is!!

Our first Thanksgiving was pretty awesome! It was weird not to be at home, but I think we handled it pretty well!! We can't wait to be home for Christmas though!! We finally booked our flight! We'll be home from late December 23rd to early January 5th!! We love the holidays!!