Shifting gears

The turkey holiday and time off from work & school are slowly coming to an end.  [sigh]  It's been a great couple of days for everyone (well, except Aaron - poor guy suffers in retail this time of year) and the time at home together was good for the soul.  Here are some pics from Thanksgiving, which we had at my sister's house this year:

Dad's plate, since I didn't get a picture of the bird whole.

The Matriarch of the family.

Zach wanted to take a pic of me & Toni.

Becca, you always say I'm never in enough photos.  Hope this helps!

An attempt at a photo of the Fab Four.  Thanks Aaron.  LOL

The second attempt.  Thanks Ken.  LOL  I give up.

Hungry and patient Grace.

Eric & Z.  Eric said he was trying to suck in his gut for the photo, but couldn't.  

That's why Zach is looking at him like that.

Aaron and Maggie.

Ma's homemade apple pie.

Ma's homemade pumpkin pie.

Ma's homemade pecan pie, made just for Aaron & Ken.

Ken's famous from-scratch chocolate chip cookies.

French Vanilla Cool Whip - a gift from the heavens.

Not to leave our fur children (kitties & elderly dog) out of the festivities, I gave the cats some chunky chicken & turkey casserole:

And I gave the dog one of his favorites - homemade chicken soup - since he can't digest turkey:

As you can see, we had quite a feast.  We also had lots of laughs and quality time together.  It was a good, albeit filling day.  We were glad to get home to undo our top buttons and relax with the UT vs. A&M football game.  (Go Horns!)

Yesterday was back to work for Aaron, and after I recovered a little from my maiden Black Friday voyage, Zach and I drove down to Aaron's store to have lunch with him.  Afterward, we came home and played Wii for a while, then decided to go to Lack's and get that bed I wrote about a few days ago.  Z would be happy to report we will be picking up his new bed in 2 1/2 hours this morning, but he's still snoring his little heart out.  To give you a visual, here is the closest thing I could find on the internet to what we bought:

His is not wood, though.  It's black metal with chrome touches here & there.  I would've loved to get him this thing:

Two problems with this though ... a) it only retails in England, as far as I could tell, and b) it goes for about $500.00 more than we paid.  It's so adorable though, more my style.  I'll post pictures of our actual purchase, once Aaron has come home from work and been able to put it together.

Guess I should go wake up Zach now, since we have to leave the house in less than an hour.  Aaron's best friend, Jamie, is meeting me & Z over at Lack's to help transport the new stuff.  The sales guy said he wasn't sure if everything would fit in our Explorer, so Jamie's bringing his pickup truck.  Before I go, here are the things I'm thankful for today:

1.  Good friends.

2.  Thanksgiving dinner.

3.  Days off.

Until next time, friends.  Peace & pastries to all.