Our Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving this year was bittersweet and filled with lots of great food, love, family and friends. We road tripped and spent 4 days with my family in my home state, Louisiana. It had already been a quite different Thanksgiving Holiday because most of my extended family were spending it away from home, so I had already known it would just be my Mom & Al, siblings, and us and that still sounded so awesome to me as I only see them a handful of times a year.

Coming into town, my Uncle Wayne and his fiance, Virginia were at the Women's hospital in Baton Rouge, in Labor and Delivery, with my little cousin, William Joseph - who was 29 weeks at this point, and weighed only 1lb 10oz. He was born at 10:03pm, and sent to NICU. Wednesday morning we got to go visit with them and I even got to hold his sweet little hand. I sent to instagram a screenshot of my tweet asking for prayers, and I can't say enough how grateful I am for the overflow of prayers from all of you via facebook, twitter, and instagram! Thank you so much.

Wednesday was spent enjoying the beautiful weather in Louisiana, visiting little Will and his amazing parents, and having some oysters with my mom, Al and Maddie (paired with some amazing bloody marys!)

We came home to this little fun surprise.....

Huxley loves his new little muscle tee... how cute is that!?

We ate some delicious chili and my mom's homemade cornbread (divine!) and my girl cousins, sister and I stayed up til 2am doing karaoke and playing catchphrase. So fun!

Thanksgiving day started off really sad. We woke up to my Uncle Wayne, cousin Tony, and Virginia in the kitchen, letting us know that Will did not make it. His sweet little body was underdeveloped and his intestines had too many air bubbles that put too much stress on his heart. It was absolutely devastating. Rest in peace, sweet Will. Not only that, but my step brother was in ICU hanging by a thread. In the midst of these tragedies, I couldn't help but look around me and feel blessed and thankful for our family. Especially for my mother and what kind of person she is to us, and to our entire family. This sounds crazy to say after what I just wrote, but my mom's house is where everyone ends up. No matter what they're going through, no matter how bad it is - it means everything to have family show up because they know that they are loved and welcomed always. I can only hope to be half the woman my mom is to my children and siblings as we get older. Our family in my opinion seems to be a rare kind, where there is no judgement, there is no envy, there is no disconnect. We're all best friends, we all know everything going on in each other's lives no matter how ugly. Our little niece Emily who was going through her dad being in ICU due to an overdose, was able to stay up all night with us and we went and got a gallon of ice cream and played games and did YouTube karaoke and she was able to break away from the pain she was going through. It made me feel really good about where I come from, so as bittersweet as Thanksgiving was, we all knew we have so much to be thankful for. 

Foods pictured above: I made a pull-apart Jalapeno Popper Bread.. Recipe soon!

Avocado Bacon Devil Eggs aka Green Eggs & Ham - Recipe soon!

Amazing ham my momma made, and homemade cornbread dressing, grandma's recipe that we attempted - wasn't exactly it but was pretty darn good!! We also had a fried turkey and smoked turkey both of which were incredibly delicious!

We spent Friday lounging around the house in our sweatpants, no Black Friday shopping for us!!! We ate some delicious leftovers and watched movies and enjoyed each other's company. We also had Maddie take a few shots of us for our very first Christmas card, our Save the Date, I cannot wait to post about these!!! Saturday was our last day in town and we turned it into sibling day since Nick was off of work. Next post up,... how sibling day turned into a sneaky way to surprise us for an Engagement Party! 

How was your thanksgiving spent?