A Happy Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving! We went to Iowa to spend the holiday with Todd's family and pretty much ate the entire time we were there! The only disappointing part of the weekend was that Todd's brother Ryan could not come up from Texas as originally planned. We haven't seen them since last March, which is just crazy! When they lived in Iowa, we saw them all the time. But, we did set up a video chat and talked online which was way cool! We used Microsoft Live Messenger and it worked out well (minus the crappy built-in speakers on my laptop). We are hoping to video chat more often. As you can see from the picture above, Ben was really into chatting with his Texas cousins.

I did get in a little running while there, about 12 miles over 3 days. But, I still gained a few pounds. Like I said, we ate a lot!! On Thanksgiving Day, Todd's mom cooked a 26-lb turkey. She also made sweet potatoes (from the garden), mashed potatoes (from the garden), homemade rolls, corn (from a relative's farm), and gooseberry pie (homemade crust with fruit from a relative) among all the other traditional holiday dishes she prepared! It was a feast! Of course we had leftovers for days. I am done with turkey until next year. Seriously, I am okay with not seeing another turkey dish until next year. We also made our traditional trip to Geno's pizza.

I didn't really do any shopping, as there is no much close to his parent's house. But I did sleep a lot and look through hundreds of recipe books his mom has collected over the years. The problem is that we do not need to eat more, and I now have lots of new dessert recipes I would love to try out sooner than later! I definitely need to find a way to get to the gym sooner than later!

We did sme little white-knuckle driving on the way home, but made it safely. The roads were slick and the snow was coming down in Northern Illinois. We saw lots of cars off the road and at one point, a car in front of off fishtailed off the road, but was able to get out of a shallow ditch with no damage. There were tow trucks and police all along the way. Todd went slow and took his time. Once we got past Bloomington, IL the roads were clear and the snow was not a problem.

It was great to hear from family and friends that also had a good holiday! Hopefully the spirit will continue on into December.