Turkey Tour 2011

We are safely back in Atlanta after our Turkey Tour 2011!

We were able to get off work early on Wednesday to beat some of the traffic leaving town (yeah right) and made our way down to Statesboro.

First on the agenda, of course, there were kittens to see. (Oh, and my family too!)

A girl after my own heart.

On Thursday, we watched the Macy's parade before heading out to Nevils for lunch. (I couldn't get my camera fast enough, but Toby and Rocco had a real problem with the SpongeBob float.)

There was plenty to eat even before it was time to eat.

 Southwestern Cheesecake, Oreo Balls, Texas Caviar &
Smoked Sausage in Puff Pastry

Then it was time for the really good stuff!

Sides

Cranberry Sauce, Turkey & Ham (for the non-turkey eaters)

Salads
(And yes, strawberry pretzel salad and pasta salad do count.)

A Plate

W Plate

After we made our way through some Black Friday sale papers and discussed the merits of Himalayan pink salt, we headed outside for a cousin photo shoot!

Later we dragged out plenty of old photos and had a good time laughing at the hairstyles and outfit choices. During the '80s and '90s, we were clearly not fans of "less is more."

The great thing about my family is that they all live close to each other. We live the farthest away of anybody, but for holidays, we can make a short trip and see all of them at once. For those of you reading, we had fun seeing yall!!

Fire-pitting was in order when we got back to the house. I went inside, so I missed an experiment with fire-roasted sweet potatoes! If they tasted half as smoky as Andrew smelled, then I'm sure they were...good?

The next morning, we avoided the Black Friday madness (guess we weren't too tempted by the sale papers), but Santa may have done some online shopping. Only time will tell. Instead, we worked on decorating my parents' house for Christmas.

With two curious kittens, we had to be strategic about ornament placement. Only shatterproof, cloth and plastic on the bottom branches!

Too bad kitties can climb trees.

They can also complete a pretty effortless high jump, so the Three Wise Men are going to have to watch their backs. Apparently the buffet isn't high enough to keep the Nativity safe. I told the little one that there were no kittens present at the birth of Jesus. ("There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?" Name that great holiday movie!)

Ten bucks says the Ninja Turtles don't make it to Christmas.

On Saturday, we were up (fairly) early so that we could head back north to Andrew's house. It was Small Business Saturday, so we made a stop at Sugar Magnolia for brunch first to support the local (and parental) economy!

Ham, Egg & Cheese Biscuit - Yum!

We had a fun and relaxing time in the Boro, and we are always sad to leave. But we were happy to continue our trip to see Andrew's mom and brother in PTC!

So it was back in the car with our new holiday co-pilot.

Pay no attention to the hand behind the monkey.

We listened to the Dawgs on the radio all the way there and arrived just in time to watch the second half. It was great to be a Georgia Bulldog yesterday!

After the game, we spent some time just hanging out before we had dinner and made plans for Christmas.

We're very thankful that we have lots of family to see, just a car ride away...and that we get to do it all again in just a few short weeks!

And now. IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!