Thanksgiving 2011

January 07, 2012

Thanksgiving 2011

Wow, it's already a week into the new year and I haven't even blogged Thanksgiving yet! Well, there's no time like present, so here goes...

I flew home the weekend before Thanksgiving, thankful for a week off work and time to hang out with my family before all the relatives arrived. Fall is my favorite season (you know, college football, leaves changing, bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils and all that...), and the weather in Georgia was amazing! We enjoyed spending a lot of time out on the deck, relishing in the sunshine and crisp breeze.

Mom and I (well mostly Mom) did some cooking beforehand so we didn't have to do quite so much on Thanksgiving morning. We baked sugar cookies in the shape of leaves (they turned out great!), I made my favorite cranberry relish, and Mom cooked a delicious turkey. We had SO MUCH FOOD, and lots of leftovers.

It was fun to see so many of my cousins. Over the last few years, the Isbell gang has really started making Thanksgiving into a family reunion of sorts. Last year we were only missing my cousin Heath and his wife and kids. This year others were missing but Heath and his crew were there. His two little boys, Easton and Cruz, are adorable and I enjoyed loving on them.

Because the weather was so gorgeous on Thanksgiving Day, some of the gang ventured out to the horseshoe pit Dad had set up in the "back 40". Dad and Papaw played several games, and I wandered around taking pictures of them and the many colored leaves.

Oh, and we played MANY games of marbles while everyone was there. As an Isbell family tradition, it's only right that the dice were rolling constantly. Even the kids got into it.

On Friday, after a bit of Black Friday shopping in which I bought my new laptop (a necessary purchase since my old one was no longer charging), Mom and I set out to decorate the Christmas tree. Dad and I had put up the outside lights earlier in the week, and we had to fight with the lights on the tree because several bulbs were out making parts of the tree dark. We finally got it all lit and decorated - it looked beautiful! We saved the rest of the decorating for Mom to do after I left, but at least we were able to carry on tradition of putting up the tree on Thanksgiving weekend.

Of course, the other highlight of Thanksgiving weekend was the Iron Bowl game, Auburn vs. Alabama, on Saturday. Everybody, even Mamaw and Papaw, was decked out in Bama gear, so I convinced them to pose for a few pics before the game. The game came out in our favor and Bama won 42-14, ROLL TIDE!!