Our Homeless Thanksgiving

Ok, ok- we're not actually homeless. I'm being dramatic... it just FELT like we were homeless kuz we weren't surrounded by family! But luckily- we were surrounded by friends which was equally wonderful. Here's how our Thanksgiving festivities went-

We got up at 5:30 am and headed to the Turkey Trot. No, no- we weren't running, just volunteering :)

It was a pretty chilly morning (for Texas) so we tried to keep ourselves warm in the car

Our friends trying to stay warm, too! Vanessa & Stefan Espinosa and Kim Ellsworth

We stopped at McDonald's for some hot chocolate in attempt to stay warm

The sun is finally out! Woo-hoo!

We were stationed at the 10k turn-around point. Jon held this sign like a champ!

Let's not forget the Turkey Bowl! Jon prepared all week for this... we even went to Wal-Mart to buy cleats! When Jon buys ANYTHING, you know it's important.

  It's time for a feast! Girls in the kitchen...

Beautiful! Kim is an expert turkey maker apparently.

Scott, our turkey carver

The beautiful table set-up

The rest of the party- the Caywoods, Lauren and Stefan.

We're stuffed and can't move...

Two hours later we ate some pie...

And we MAY be crazy, BUT Kim and I braved the Black Friday crowds! First stop- Best Buy...

The ridiculous line that wrapped all around Best Buy and around the shopping center.

I'm pretty sure people camped out all night....

We also tried out Wal-Mart, which was a ZOO!!

Yeah gross. Pretty much wall to wall people. 45 minutes in the check out lane.

But we found some good deals, and that's what matters. I love Thanksgiving!

Oops! Christmas came early....

So I naturally have a hard time waiting for things... and I'm married to someone who doesn't mind doing things a little early either! THUS... the Christmas tree and Christmas decos came out a couple of days before Thanksgiving! Oops! What were we supposed to do? We bought a Christmas tree last Saturday and it's just been STARING at me in the face everyday. I couldn't wait until Thanksgiving! Now- we have nothing to do after Thanksgiving :)

We started off the holiday fun by making Holiday cards with our neighbor Vanessa

  Then after Stake Conference we went and bought a tree... that's where my anxiety began!

We tried really hard to wait until after Thanksgiving... but we just HAD to open the box!

Sure it looks a little bare, but what do you expect for $15?

Fluff, fluff, fluff

And more fluffing...

Here come the lights!

Trying to make our tree look decent...

Candy canes for the tree! Cheap and edible- the perfect ornament

Yum, yum, yum

Our tree

And all lit up!... Although it's lacking a star still... hmmm... about that...

And personally... I don't think I ruined anything about Thanksgiving by putting up my tree early... maybe I should put it up in September... ;)

Dancing...

One of my dance classes had the chance to perform at an elementary school carnival this past weekend. Here they are dressed up to do a hip-hop version of the Hokey Pokey. It was a last minute thing, and only a few of them could make it- but they did awesome!

Rice University

Most mornings I get up early and take Jon to school, and let's face it-once you're up early, why waste a beautiful morning? So I've been running around Rice University (since running around our neighborhood is a little bit shady). I just park in the 15 minute parking spots (even though I'm gone for longer) and am always pleasantly surprised to see no ticket on my windshield upon returning. Turns out that not ALL parking officers are as anal as the BYU ones :)

But today I decided to take some pics as I ran around... it really is a beautiful campus

Everything is surrounded by trees...

And there are squirrels everywhere! Do you see him? At the base of the tree? Whenever I see them, I picture them talking to me like on "Emperor's New Groove"... ohhh if only.

The Rice Owls

My new sparkling white running shoes! It was like running on clouds this morning! My other shoes were soooo dead beat.... they were about as useful as tying a 4x4 to each foot.

Jon's lab building

Can you see the stadium way down there? It's the home of the Rice football team... they've been in the bottom 25 the whole season :(

And we made it full circle back to the car!

Disney on Ice!

So we went to Disney on Ice... we were probably the ONLY ones there with no kids... BUT no matter- the show was still magical!

My camera didn't take very good pictures with the lights turned down, so I took a lot of video... Enjoy! They started the show with Aladdin, and they were awesome!

Where's Nemo? These guys weren't all "tricksy" but I liked them... especially Bruce :)

This was one of my favoritest parts! All the classic Disney couples came out and did ridiculous partner work on the ice- I didn't get it all on film but they were incredible! There was Belle & the Beast, Cinderella & Prince whatever his name is, Ariel & Eric, Jasmine & Aladdin, Pocahontas & John Smith, Snow White and Prince Charming....

And who doesn't love "It's A Small World"? They were great! They did dances from all around the world... it made us miss folk dance :(

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

Ah, Pinocchio brought back a whole FLOOD of memories from my childhood!

Ok I LOVED the Mulan section. Shang was AWESOME! Anyone who can do back flips on the ice deserves respect.

The Incredibles were surprisingly... not that incredible :(
Simba and Nala were AMAZING but I didn't get video of it kuz I was too busy pulling my chin up off the floor in amazement.
Sadly, the show DID come to an end.. and here are all of our Disney friends... one last time!

Fall? What?

With the past week of temps in the high 70's... one begins to wonder if there really is a change of seasons in the southern most reaches of Texas. But what's this I see? A tree with yellow leaves? The only one in Houston perhaps, and it's right outside my window. Maybe Fall does exist? Maybe?

Yep- another "Happy Halloween" post for you to read!

Well- guess what we did this weekend? How'd you know? You're so smart.... we celebrated Halloween! We had a variety of fun activities.... on Friday night we got together with some of our friends and had a smashing party...

We made costumes out of stuff in our closet. We came up with Richard Simmons and Mulan :)

 The Ellsworths came as a cat (see her tail?) and Beckham.

We attempted to make caramel apples...

But didn't exactly have enough caramel to dip the FULL apples in.

Consequently- THIS was the end result. Ok, so they're not the prettiest things ever but they still tasted good!

We carved a pumpkin... yep A pumpkin. Just one. Turns out that looking for pumpkins the night before Halloween is a losing battle.

The boys at work...

And the end result! (it's a werewolf in case you were wondering...)

 

And then on REAL Halloween night, we went over to Jon's cousins place (kuz they have a REAL house with REAL trick-or-treaters) and ate dinner and played games.

I think I thoroughly enjoyed our first Halloween in Houston with temperatures at 60 degrees for the low. Awesome!