A long Thanksgiving style weekending it

Well we are back home and back to routine.  Blerg.  It's Monday post holiday and those are the worst.  But I am determined to give a good faith effort to make the next three weeks festive.  I can tolerate three weeks in December when there is another full week of vacation in sight and everything around us is colorful, festive, and full of Christmas spirit.  I LOVE this time of year, the only time I welcome frigid temps and snow.

Our time in Kansas last week was true bliss.  We arrived early Monday and immediately jetted off to the outlet mall - I think we can say it's tradition now.  Terri Mom got Dan and me new shoes as early Christmas gifts and I am all set for the season as far as footwear goes.  We had Chick-fil-a for lunch (oh yum) and then spent some time in heaven (a.k.a Hobby Lobby).  I have a very special craft project that has been bumping around in my brain for a year and it is nearly finished!  Reveal soon!

Then we headed to the house to cuddle Baby.   She was really happy to see us, I think.

Terri Mom had stacks of cool craft/home magazines to look at, homemade vegetable soup for dinner, and then she introduced me to the wonders for embroidered felt ornaments!!!  Look at the hedgehog ornaments she made us! So cute.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a lovely Kansas country morning.

And Dan's favorite pull-apart rolls.

I can't make these for him because our grocery stores do not stock the necessary dough but it's a real treat when Terri Mom makes them anyways.

Then we drove over to Grandma's house to visit for the day where we also met all the kitties!!! So cute.

A Kansas sunset and a trip to Walmart rounded out the day.

On Wednesday while we waited for Dan's brother Sam to arrive we crafted!!  Dan, Terri Mom, and I all made felt ornaments.  Dan learned how to sew and designed his own snowman.

That evening, Dan and I took Baby for a walk around the gorgeous property. 

We all enjoyed Sam's grilled steak for dinner.  Sam also brought his cute puppy Ember but evidently I didn't take any photos.  We were all busy trying to keep the pup from giving poor Baby a heart attack.

Thursday we all headed over to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving with Dan's family.  It was a really nice and mellow day with just the adults and all the food.  I love LOVE LOVE visiting with Dan's Aunts, Uncle, and Grandma.  They all give such deep and true hugs that fill your heart full to the top and make you feel like a real part of the family.  Conversation is always good too!

The food was, of course, epic and I wish I had this plate sitting in front of me right now.  And they all made sure I had my canned cranberries :o).

My mom sent Mandy and me a picture of this comic strip on Thanksgiving morning.  Perfect!

That evening, back at Terri Mom and Allen Dad's house, Dan and I decorated the Christmas tree.  This is the third year in a row that we got to decorate their tree.  It's a fun tradition.

We headed back to New York on Friday morning.  Fortunately the freezing rain in Kansas didn't get in the way.  When we switched seats in Nashville I so happened to find two brand new magazines in the seat back pocket in front of me.  Score!!

And we love this view when reentering our city.  The picture below is the area over Brooklyn where we live.  It's so easy to spot from the sky thanks to the bridge.

Saturday morning we slept-in, lounged around, and then decorated the apartment for Christmas!!!  Full reveal on December 8th.  Stay tuned.

Sunday was church.  Cest la vie.

We ended the weekend with crafting, football, and dragging our sorry behinds back onto the routine bandwagon.  Monday morning was here before we knew it. 

That one time I went to the parade...

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We are in Kansas enjoying the mild 60 degree weather and looking forward to bellies full of wholesome homemade Midwest cooking.  Since we are busy enjoying family time today I wrote this post in advance.  It's a memory rewind. 

I mentioned back here that I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade one time.  It was a once in a lifetime experience because we were seated in the bleachers right in front of Macy's where all the performances are done.  Anyone can attend the parade and line the streets of the parade route the morning of the event.  However, all the people in the bleachers along the route and outside Macy's have to have tickets. 

In 2012, Dan and I had just started dating so we were not really blending family holidays yet.  He was upstate visiting a cousin and I stayed in Brooklyn.  My good friend works for Macy's corporate and she won a raffle for tickets to the parade and she graciously offered one to me!

Four of us met in the wee hours of the morning to head into the city, I think we met in the Subway at like 4 am.  Ticket holders had to arrive by 6 am to get their seats.  We sat on the freezing cold bleachers while the sun rose over the city.  The Broadway performers were practicing right by us and we could see Savannah and Matt preparing for the NBC broadcast.

Even though it was really cold, crowded, and tiring, we had a blast.  Everything was so close and the spirit of the holidays was so alive.

The best part?  SANTA of course!

After the parade our tickets let us into the special post-parade buffet inside Macy's where all the people who participated in the parade got to chow down.  It was really neat but by that point we were exhausted and had a long commute back to Brooklyn.  It was weird though because it felt so late but it was only just after noon.

That night my friend and I made a full thanksgiving meal at my tiny studio apartment.  How we managed to coordinate everything I'll never know but it was  great time with her.

I'll probably never go to the parade again.  To me, waiting along the route just isn't worth it.  I'd rather watch in my jammies on the couch.  But if I was ever invited to sit in the ticketed area again, why of course!

Hope you are all enjoying your holiday!  Love from Kansas. 

Weekending-it

By the time this post publishes, we'll be in the lovely state of Kansas for our Thanksgiving holiday with Dan's family!

I didn't want to have a ton to catch-up on when we got back so I'm posted about our weekend as regularly scheduled.

It was a blast!  Here is the play-by-play.

On Saturday morning we slept-in and Dan delivered donuts in bed!

We had a slow morning and watched all the Friends Thanksgiving episodes and then got around to head into the city.

Last Monday was our engagement anniversary and we completely forgot to even acknowledge it.  So we decided to celebrate this weekend since we had tickets to the circus anyways.  It was a Day-venture.

We saw a docu-series about the Big Apple Circus (recommended by Mandy) and wanted to see the show ever since.  It always ends its season at Lincoln Center and we grabbed-up $25 tickets last month.  It was a fantastic show!  We loved the Russian Wheel and the Acrobats...underwhelmed by the dogs and horses but still greatly entertained. 

We hope to make the Big Apple Circus a new fall tradition.

After the circus we tried a new to us restaurant called the Burrito Box.  It was mega yum!!

Then we walked to Bryant Park to go ice skating.  We made stops along the way to admire the holiday scenes popping up everywhere.

Fortunately we only had to wait in line about 20 minutes before getting into the rink (we've waited over an hour before) and since we have our own ice skates and we brought our own combination lock it was a free excursion!

It was super crowded on the ice and I fell once twisting my leg entirely backwards so we decided to quit while we could and vowed to come back again before Christmas.

Then we explored the Winter Village tents around the park and enjoyed hot apple cider.

After a FULL day we headed home and snuggled-up to watch a really good show on Amazon called The Man in the High Castle.  We highly recommend.  Overall a really wonderful day filled with tons and bunches of happy memories that filled us with the holiday spirit. 

Sometimes I feel a little silly that Dan and I do so many things that are rather kiddish, like the circus. But ultimately, we are doing what we love and experiencing fun things no matter our age.  We need to take advantage of the one-on-one time we have with each other and of course this great city.   In these moments we are being 100% ourselves...immaturity and all.   We were clearly made for each other. 

Sunday was church followed by a mountain of laundry and packing for the trip.  We had dinner and games with friends and not so early to bed for our 5:30 am flight. 
 

A great start to a vacation week!