Gather Here with Grateful Hearts

Thanksgiving 2012 in the Ferri household started off one weekend early with Friendsgiving.  We made the bird and the stuffing (we combined recipes #20 and #21...best stuffing I've ever had), and our friends each brought a favorite side. Seriously, every single thing we had was delicious. I mean think about it...we got a sampling of everyone's favorite family recipe. The best of the best from about 9 different families. You really just can't go wrong!

This photo looks oddly similar to one taken last year...

We threw in a little signature cocktail to the festivities this year - Ginger Apple Bourbons.   We went through an entire bottle of bourbon with these. Do yourself a favor and try it - tastes like fall! If you've never used ginger beer, you should be able to find it at your local ABC store. It's non-alcoholic, but carbonated.  The best way I know how to describe it is it tastes like really gingery ginger ale - we use Gosling's and it's about $7 for a 6-pack.  One can will make 4 of these drinks. And...it comes in Diet ladies! I couldn't tell the difference between a Diet and regular version in a mixed drink.

On Tuesday afternoon, after I left my last. law school. class. ever. Ahem, let me repeat, ever....we headed up to South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with Eric's family.  We got in super late on Tuesday night, but it was great because we had an extra day to spend with everyone on Wednesday.  Wednesday morning, Eric and I popped over to visit our friends Kyle and Kirby, and then headed back to get some work done.  I spent my afternoon watching lectures on the 6th amendment.  Here is where I remind myself again that this is the LAST year that I will have to study for exams over Thanksgiving weekend. LAST.

Eric and I were up early with his brother, Kevin, to run a Thanksgiving Day 8k on Thursday morning. The race was really well organized - it started at 9, and we were home by 10:30, so it didn't take too much time away from cooking and family. This was our first year running a Thanksgiving Day Race, but I think it just might become a Ferri tradition!  Coming from Florida, race morning was colder than we are used to! But I must say, I will take running the cold over running the heat and humidity every single day of the week. Eric ran this one in 40:40, and my time was 46:15. Five-ish miles was a good length for a Turkey Day race I think -  enough for a good workout in the morning, but not enough to make it too "serious" of a race on a holiday.  I'll have you all know that I added Christmas carols to my running playlist for this race because...why not have some fun with it? I sprinted to the finish line to the tune of "Run, Run Rudolph." It was a big boost...highly recommend it :) 

Those of you who follow our shenanigans on Facebook and Instagram saw that Eric's mom had quite the activity lineup for us...love it.

What she left off was "feeding Pierre."  This little basset ate all. weekend. long. And he loved every minute of it.  Of course, he was a polite house guest and waited to puke until he got home on my couch. His favorite treat was the hambone from Wednesday night's dinner.  Hooked his longest leash on a tree outside and gave him roam of the place - he was in heaven.  He must have reburied that thing at least 10 times throughout the weekend when he was done with it.

While Pierre snacked on a hambone, the rest of us carved pumpkins and drank coffee fireside.  When Eric and I first started dating, I managed to finagle his entire family into a pumpkin carving contest when I was there for a weekend visit.  It's now become a favorite family activity, and since we weren't in SC for Halloween, we just moved the carving back a few weeks to Thanksgiving!

Since Eric's dad is always the judge, I may or may not have tried to sway his vote a little with my message on the back of our pumpkin....carved in the shape of Pierre's pawprint.
 

 After the carving fun, we all cleaned up and took some family photos before Thanksgiving dinner.  We haven't had one with everyone together in a really, really long time. So I put my tripod to good use again!

Eric and I even managed to get a photo of the two of us...

which is great because when you're always the one with the camera, normally your photos together end up looking like this:

The "up the nostril" shot is not really the best look for me.

 Before Thanksgiving Dinner, we all drew someone else's name and said why we were thankful for that person.  I felt my eyes well up with tears as soon as I drew Eric's, and I knew that my little statement was going to take everyone right down an emotional downhill.  The road that we have been down to this holiday has been a long and difficult one, albeit one that I'm very thankful for.  The emotions of this being our last holiday season dealing with law school and Eric's MBA were running high, and I am just so very thankful for a husband who dares to dream as big as I do in life, and then works so-very-hard right alongside me to make our dreams come to life. This all sounds so very sappy, but oh, it's so true.  So I (tearfully) got through mine, and then...turns out Eric pulled my name too. Here came the tears, all around the table, round two! In my defense, I'm always very emotionally unstable during exam time (I wish I was joking).  But...it was special in it's own way, and sometimes it's good to do some reflecting with your guard down.

Dinner was put on the table, and Eric's mom really outdid herself - every bite was delicious.  She even put a little mat with bowls for Pierre in the formal dining room so that he could enjoy some turkey along with everyone else - this is why he pretty much attached himself to her side for the whole weekend. But hey- that's what grandmas are for.

After dinner, reading, naps, and second cups of coffee were had. Eric's mom and I headed out late on Thanksgiving night to hit up a couple of Black Friday deals not expecting to be gone long. But the holiday spirit and the cold weather must have given us an extra jolt of energy because we didn't make it back home until 3:30 am...no photos, but loved every minute of it.  If I told you that that was the extent of our shopping and that we didn't head back out the next morning, I would be telling you a lie.  Eric and I spent the remainder of the afternoon and night on Friday hanging out, drinking, and telling stories with his parents.  It was a pretty great ending to the holiday weekend.

We arrived back in Florida yesterday afternoon and will be spending the rest of the weekend unpacking and trying to get all of the Christmas decor up. If it were up to me, I'd probably just rest (due to the cold I'm currently nursing) and wait until next weekend.  But...I need to study all this week to get ready for exams, not be tempted to get up and tinker with Christmas decorations.  So I feel like it needs to get done today. Sigh. I really hate that law school manages to take fun things and make them into things "to do" on my list. Trying not to make Christmas decorating stressful today because really, what's the point? Can someone just repeat again to me that this is the LAST YEAR that law school exams will ever hang over the holidays? Thank you very much.

I'm off to turn on some Christmas carols, eat a bowl of Eric's homemade chili,  and try to get myself back into the holiday spirit.  I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your loved ones - can't wait to hear all of your stories this week...you know, on my study breaks :)