Tremendous Turkey Holiday

No offense to my precious family (*innocent eye batting*, *sweet smile*, *hugs & kisses*) but this was one of my favorite, most fun Thanksgivings of all time! We drove to spend Wednesday night - Saturday night with one of my BFFs who lives just over 3 hours away. We got off later than we wanted Wednesday evening with some last-minute scrambling, but as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, we were fine. The weather was rainy & freezing, but it didn't dampen our spirits. We even stopped for dinner & Starbucks, and STILL made it on the busiest travel day of the year at night in the rain in less than 4 hours. Rockstars. :-P The kids watched our fave Thanksgiving movie on the way (not Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, although they love that, but the historical Mayflower Voyagers from "This is America, Charlie Brown"), they went right to sleep when we arrived, and my BFF & I stayed up waaaaay too late talking. :-) That may have been the best part of the whole visit - spilling our guts & advising each other, like free counseling for 3 full days! :-D Our husbands lounged, watching football, napping, & reading. The kids (our 2, their 3) provided non-stop playmates for each other (PRICELESS!!!) so we could actually make all of our favorite dishes together for Thursday's feast - cooking alone is painfully boring to me; having someone in the kitchen with me to talk makes it fun! We stuffed ourselves and ALL stayed in our pajamas ALL DAY Thursday. We even passed out about 8 PM Thursday evening.

Friday morning, we loaded up the kids and went to see Tangled - FANTASTIC!!! Annelise wants her name officially changed now to Rapunzel, and I had a hard time getting her to let me put her hair up yesterday, b/c she wanted it "down like the movie." *Sigh* Honey, I'd wear my hair down 24/7, too, if it always looked as perfect & untangled as hers stays in that movie! :-P

Friday afternoon, my BFF & I made about 250 of my ultimate #1 favorite family Christmas recipe: chocolate-covered cherry cookies! I shared the recipe with her when we first became friends living outside Atlanta, and they've become as special to her family now as they are to mine. Talk about productive: I made enough to freeze for all of our teacher gifts & for my MOPS Christmas dinner, too; so other than gingerbread houses & whatever else I want to do just for fun, all of my obligatory Christmas baking is DONE!!! (And again, it was SO MUCH FUN to make them with her, as opposed to it feeling like a messy labor-intensive chore all by myself with an outcome just sweet enough to be worth it.)

Yesterday, she gave me a makeover. (She could be a professional makeup artist!) I *LOOOVE* makeup & esp. anything glittery/metallic...but I don't really enjoy the act of putting it on myself, so I never wear anything but eyeliner & lip gloss. Whenever someone else will do my makeup for me, though? PURE HEAVEN!!! After we were beautified, we went to the mall, which was always our default fun activity when we were neighbors. I didn't buy anything, except for a blown glass calla lily Christmas ornament: our fave style of ornaments & I carried giant calla lilies as my wedding bouquet! ♥

My only weekend regret? We took NO PICTURES!!! Scratch that. She took this *one* of me & Annelise at the mall yesterday:

LOVE this pic...but can't believe I won't be scrapbooking one of the best holidays ever. :-P