Thanksgiving 2014

How's that for a creative title??

Well...it's officially Christmas season!! I can't lie.. I've been in Christmas mode for weeks now, but I can finally share my obsessions with all things Christmas publicly now! Before I dive headfirst in the plethora of blog posts I've been waiting to publish, I need to wrap up Thanksgiving first!

 

Last Wednesday morning around 5 a.m., Ryan and I hit the road to begin our drive to Stanley, Virginia. Both sets of parents left around that same time from Georgia, and my brother and his girlfriend, Colee, left a couple hours later from Bowling Green, Kentucky. The spot we picked conveniently was about a 9 1/2 hour drive from each location! After a very VERY snowy drive, we pulled into the cabin driveway around mid-afternoon, about 20 minutes after our parents. We quickly got unpacked and loaded back into the car to head to the grocery store to stock the fridge and cabinets! Jake and Colee joined us later in the evening, after getting stuck in a bit of traffic, and we sat down at the table for our first meal together of the trip. Susan brought with her two trays of her world famous lasagna, which tasted just as good as you would expect it to with that title! Since it had been a pretty long day for all eight of us, we spent a little time lounging in the living room by the fire and catching up before heading to bed fairly early to get some sleep.

Our driving conditions for the day!

 

 





EVERY bedroom had a fireplace!!



Our frosty firepit

Thanksgiving morning, we woke up and enjoyed some coffee while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Schoeff family took of breakfast for the morning, making two bacon, egg, and cheese crescent rings.

 

We didn't have any set plans for the day until our dinner reservation at 3:30 in Luray, so we casually lounged around, staggering our showers throughout the morning and early afternoon. At 3, we loaded into the car and made the short drive into town to the Mimslyn Inn. We didn't end up sitting down at our table until closer to 4, and we skipped lunch, so we were all pretty hungry by the time the waiter came to take our orders. Everyone got the traditional turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry except for me and Ryan, who had had our fill of turkey for a little while. Ryan got the seafood plate and I got the prime rib. Everything was delicious though! We finished dinner with dessert of course. There were a couple pumpkin pies, a bunch of crème brûlée cheesecakes, and one chocolate bread pudding. They also brought out a chocolate pecan pie on accident, but left it at the table for us. Win!

Props galore..

 

With full bellies, we rolled ourselves back to the cabin and spent the rest of the night playing dominos.

On Friday, Jake needed to get a swim practice in and the closest pool was about an hour away in Harrisonburg, VA. Since there were tons of stores and a mall in that area, we decided to all pile into the car and drive into town together. While Jake swam and my dad coached, the rest of us walked around Old Navy and a couple other stores at the mall nearby. Once Jake was done, we all went to CHICK-FIL-A for lunch. And yes. Chick-Fil-A deserves to be in all caps. It's that good. We did a little more shopping at Best Buy, Ross, and Michaels before heading back to the cabin for the night. For dinner tonight, we had grilled steaks, roasted potatoes, asparagus, salad, and rolls. Talk about a feast!

Beautiful sunset on our drive home from town!

On our last full day in Virginia, Brad, Susan, Ryan, my dad, and I  went on a "hike" in the morning. Hike is in quotation marks because we didn't hike in the traditional way you may be picturing. We mostly spent an hour or so walking around, taking pictures, throwing snowballs at things and each other, and building a mini snowman.

We rushed back to the cabin around noon to watch the Georgia Tech/ UGA football game. (Fun fact, the Saturday after Thanksgiving will always be remembered in my family as the day Ryan proposed!! Three years ago already!) While watching the game, Colee and I made burlap wreaths.. which really helped take my mind off of the craziness that took place on our TV screen. While the game wasn't super pretty, I am happy to report that GT won!! In overtime, too! On top of our big victory, Indiana and Western Kentucky both squeaked out wins also! Turned out to be a pretty great day for everyone at the cabin! We finished our vacation by eating pretty much everything left in the fridge for dinner, along with a crock-pot full of chili, and playing dominos again!

Hot Tub Celebration!

Sunset on our last night!

Early Sunday morning, everyone loaded up their cars and parted ways. But... only for three weeks! Christmas is right around the corner!! Yipee!

Happy Holiday season, ya'll!