Turkey Time!

Thanksgiving!  A time of friends, family and food and boy did we get a good fill of all three over the long weekend!  Tiffany, Josh and the kids came to Richmond to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, but the preparations started way before Thursday.  

Tuesday was spent, baking cupcakes, making cranberry sauce and creating a brine for our Alton Brown Turkey.  

 I also managed to snag these adorable plates at Target and found this free printable for a utensil holder to make the table look that much more festive...

Garrett loved the plates and kept asking for his Turkey plate:

Delicious and flavorful Turkey:

While last minute preparations came underway, Josh, Maggie, Bonnie, and I stayed home, while Tiffany, CJ, Andy and Ryan took the kiddos to the playground to get them out of the house for about an hour!

Kid at heart!

They got back just in time for the full spread to be out and ready to eat:

Post dinner fun was spent watching TV...

 ..and attempting to get a family photo op

 somewhat successfully!

In true King family tradition, Bons got us ladies matching Christmas shirts:

And even more tradition happened the next day when CJ and I got up semi-early to hit up Black Friday sales:

Afteward we met up with Tiffany, Josh, and the kiddos at the Arc Park for some play time before heading home for lunch and naptime

During their nap, Auntie Lala made Banana Muffins, so when they awoke they got a nice surprise:

Thus concluding the Thanksgiving festivities.  Tiffany, Josh and the kiddos headed home Friday evening and Saturday was spent getting Christmas decorations up, then Sunday I was able to relax with a trip to Christmastown.  What have you been doing to get in the Holiday Spirit?  What was your favorite part about Thanksgiving?

Nephews, Football and Apples, Oh my!

This will be a brief, picture-heavy post because, really that is what you are all here for anything, right?  Josh has been traveling some for work, so one week while he was away, I took off a day and a half of work and headed down to Norfolk to spend time with these cuties:

of course I brought Banana Muffins!

"Lock up your daughters"

 We experienced a bit of rain, so the boys came fully prepared in boots, umbrellas and goggles, because why not?

While Corbin was at school on Wednesday, Tiffany and I headed to the mall with two very energetic two year olds who almost immediately took off running in opposite directions.  Seriously I don't know how my sister does it??!?!

It was a quite visit, getting up super early (read 5:30) Thursday morning to make it back to work in time.  After two quick work days, it was out of town once again, this time, I was headed West toward Blacksburg!

Quick stop at Bold Rock for the new IPA release-YUM!

The reason for the second trip back this year is cause our beloved Frank Beamer is retiring and I wanted to see his last home game.  It was great to see all the love for Beamer throughout campus and around town.

The game was at 12noon on Saturday, so we were up early, not to tailgate but to get some Slouvaki, because you know its my favorite!

Love the orange and maroon pansies!

Thanks Frank, by the Marching Virginians!

 After the game CJ and I met up with Amanda, Sarah and Kyle at Macado's in Radford.  It has been forever since I have eaten here but it was just as delicious as I remember it being.

Snuggles with one of my favorite little men!

 Sunday morning, we actually managed to sleep in a bit, and headed out to meet up with Kathryn and Tom for lunch in Charlottesville before hitting up Carter Mountain.

The apples were mostly all picked for us, so we did not get to actual pick any ourselves, but we did enjoy an apple donut and stocked up on apples before heading onto Richmond.  What a great few weeks this was, next up...Thanksgiving!

The first half of November

At this rate, I am so far behind in updating my life, you get 2 week spans, so what happened in the first half of November?  So glad you asked!

Well exactly one week following our Newsies experience, we sat much further back in Altria theater to see Rend Collective and Chris Tomlin preform.  It was an awesome show and I am so thankful for Anna's awesome planning skills, we had 10 people together and that was a great night of worship and fellowship!

The Friday following was the mini Greek Festival, so we got a group together to check it out and enjoy some delicious slouvaki, baklava, and other great dishes!

Followed Saturday by Nannie's 98th birthday party!

Highlights, she kept asking who made the cake, I finally took credit and she could not stop talking about it!  Best $15 Sam's club purchase ever!

 What a beautiful family this lady has:

Saturday afternoon, I bundled up a bit more to check out Hops in the Park!  We had a great time trying some different beers and checking out the people all dressed up:

Quite Literally with a Hop in the park!

What a fun weekend that was!

Not to be outdone, on Sunday afternoon, I got to babysit this cute little one:

We bundled up for a walk outside

He is getting so big!

Well that about wraps up the first bit of November, stay tuned in the next day or two for some nephew picture updates and maybe even a new recipe if you are lucky :)