Thankful

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?

Giving thanks for hobbies

[This is the 3rd installment in my giving thanks series.]

I suppose that giving thanks for hobbies is kind of strange, but once  I thought about it, I realized that life would be pretty dull if we didn’t have any interests aside from work or school.

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing went right? What do you do after one of those days?

When I have a terrible day, I like to go home, pull out a favorite recipe, and cook or bake something that I love.Just punching some bread dough… you know… it relieves stress..

I find a kind of peace in chopping vegetables or measuring flour. I hardly think, I just do menial tasks that I enjoy. Soon enough, I find myself relaxed, calm, and able to look back on the day and just let it go.

[Other hobbies that are cathartic for me include scrap booking, reading, walking my dog, jumping on my trampoline like a crazy person, running slowly, reading my Bible, writing in my journal, and swimming.]

The “finished project” of a task like baking or cooking is so wonderful-food! I love to pull a cake out of the oven, frost it, and then eat it. Mmmm. The feeling after a run is so awesome and I love looking back on scrap books I have made or journals I have written in.

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I think everyone would be so much more stressed out if we didn’t have hobbies or special interests as an outlet for emotions.

* So today, I am thankful for hobbies-for all the joys they bring, and for the stress relief that comes with doing things we love. *

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Are you thankful for hobbies? What relieves stress for you?