black friday shopping

Good Times + Good News

Hey! I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.

My family from New York arrived at my house around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, and they’re still here.. woo! We’ve all been hanging out at my house, traversing the Pittsburgh area, eating good food, and laughing a lot.

Thanksgiving food preparations began on Tuesday night, with my mom and I baking almond and pumpkin cookies. Wednesday morning, I made pumpkin pie and banana cream pie. My mom made an apple pie and my aunt made cheesecake. Dessert city!
The turkey was fully cooked around 2:30 p.m., and we ate around 3:00p .m.! We had turkey, sage-sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn, biscuits, coleslaw, and cranberry sauce. I thought it was very goofy, but we also had ketchup and sriracha at the table :p. Good food and a messy table. I swear my family isn’t usually that messy… we were just looking at Black Friday advertisements!

Me, Hannah, and Molly (one of our cousins). We didn’t plan on matching by wearing black t-shirts. Just a coincidence!

Mom + Dad looking all adorable and whatnot ❤

Everyone gathered in our tiny living room to watch my favorite football team (the Dallas Cowboys) lose.

My mom and aunt left to go shopping around 7 p.m. (crazy). Everyone else gathered around the fire.For a little while, it was just my dad and I sitting by the fire. I don’t get to talk to him one-on-one very often because he’s always busy with work. We were able to sit together and talk for about an hour, just me and him. I think that was my favorite part about Thanksgiving. I love my dad :).

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Also, I have some good news. My truck isn’t totaled and I might be getting it back sometime next week!

I learned the good news on Thanksgiving and I was very thankful! It was crazy to think that the crash happened on Halloween, and I finally heard back on Thanksgiving. I am so excited to get my baby back! Every time Pittsburgh had warm weather the past few weeks, I wanted to wash my truck, and then I would realize that I couldn’t. Now I can! But it’s supposed to snow this week. LOL.

I have more pictures to share, but I don’t want to make this post too long. I’m off to work, and then spending the day with my family because they leave tomorrow.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Thanksgivings past

I don’ know about you, but I love to look back at pictures or blog posts from exactly a year (or two.. or three..) ago. Looking at old pictures and blog posts helps me to remember fun times and emotions that I felt.

Because Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I decided to look back through my blog and my Facebook and try to find one picture that perfectly describes Thanksgiving that year.

I found pictures on my Facebook from 2008-2012!

Thanksgiving 2008

This picture makes me smile.Hannah and I both painted our bedrooms rooms lime green over the Thanksgiving break. I remember this moment so well: None of Hannah’s furniture was moved back into her bedroom yet, so we decided to have a dance party. We plugged an iHome into an outlet and blasted music while dancing around her empty lime green room. We took this picture while we were dancing.

Thanksgiving 2009

My mom, sister, and I went Black Friday shopping in 2009 and I guess I was really excited about coupons! When I look really closely at the picture, I can see that the coupons aren’t for clothes or electronics. The coupons are for McDonald’s coffee. LOL. We shopped a good bit and had a ton of fun out in the craziness that is Black Friday.

Thanksgiving 2010

My family visited the Outer Banks in North Carolina for Thanksgiving in 2010. It was the most amazing (and totally weird) thing to be by the ocean and eat seafood instead of turkey for dinner. My parents wanted to take a picture of my brother and I standing in front of the ocean but he surprised me and picked me up before my mom took the picture. I remember that he didn’t put me back on the ground right away. He spun me around and around until I was dizzy and pretended to throw me in the ocean. I remember screaming and laughing so hard.

I also had started my blog by 2010! Here and here are my Thanksgiving posts.

Thanksgiving 2011

For Thanksgiving in 2011, my brother was living in State College, PA and had dinner with his girlfriend (now fiance!). My parents + Hannah went to New York to visit my aunt and uncle. I stayed home and hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Jimmy’s family at my house. We all had dinner, watched Pupmkin Chunkin, and played Twister. I remember being so nervous before the dinner and feeling so relaxed afterwards!

My Thanksgiving blog posts from 2011 are here and here.

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This post was so much fun to write and I absolutely loved looking back in time and remembering all of the fun Thanksgivings I have experienced with friends and family.

For Thanksgiving 2012, my aunt and uncle + 3 cousins are coming from NY to Pittsburgh to stay with my family for a few days! Last time I saw my cousins was for Easter in 2011. I’m really excited to see my family again! I know it’s going to be crazy and fun to have ten people (plus two dogs and two cats) living in my house for a couple of days!

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?