Thanksgiving and Our 1 Year Anniversary

It's Thursday and I'm seriously just now getting back to my normal 'work mindset'.  I've been so depressed that my Thanksgiving "break" (it's in quotes because obviously I don't really have a break, I'm not in college anymore!) went by so fast and that I haven't even gotten into the Christmas spirit yet!  I haven't put one single Christmas decoration up yet.  I have almost finished my Christmas shopping though!  

Well today I am finally posting a Thanksgiving recap because I'm finally able to look through the pictures without being depressed that it's over.  Wow, I sound pathetic haha!

Last Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, I got off of work at 2:00 and went to go say good bye to Vinnie because we were each going to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families instead of together (boo).  Then I went home and grabbed Marley, my bags, and my contribution to Thanksgiving (wine, pumpkin bars, and pumpkin butter) and was on the road to Iowa by 3:30.  Traffic was terrible so I'm very thankful that I got to leave work early.  I can't even imagine what rush hour traffic the day before Thanksgiving would have been like in Chicago.  I got to my parents house a little after 6:30.  My sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew were already there and my brother showed up a little later.  We spent the majority of that first night talking and playing with the kiddos.

Woody never left Jack's side this entire weekend.

My sweet nephew, Jack.

Best picture I could get of Emma and Jack.

I know, my eyes look effing creepy.

Silly.

Even sillier.

I was lucky to have Jack sleep in my bed that night because he sleeps like a rock and barely moves.  Emma on the other hand is a kicker!

The next day was Thanksgiving.  While my mom started cooking the rest of us enjoyed some donuts, coffee, and bloody marys.  The turkey ended up cooking faster than expected and we were eating my 1:00.

The table all set for Thanksgiving. 

Turkey for Marley.

He LOVED it!

And the rest of this night was spent watching Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 and of course kicking it with the wild ones.
 

Jacky loves back scratches.

He sucks his fingers when he gets sleepy.

This is the look I usually get from Emma.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 
Everyone left Friday morning except for me.  I spent the day with my parents.  I have never and will never do Black Friday shopping because I would either die from anxiety or murder several people for causing my anxiety.  We did decide to go shopping later that night though because we figured the mall wouldn't be quite as crazy.  It wasn't too bad and I ended up getting a bunch of great deals on stuff for Christmas presents.  I felt very accomplished.  We went out to eat at Front Street Brewery that night and then headed over to Jersey Grill to watch a band.  It was a lot of fun.

My mom and I

Vegas bombs as usual.

Saturday I headed home because Vinnie and I were celebrating our 1 year anniversary that night (our anniversary was on Friday).  I was going to use a whole post to recap our anniversary date but it didn't quite go as planned and there's not a whole lot to say about it.  I spent a long time planning our anniversary so I'm actually still really upset that it didn't go well.  

We planned on spending the whole day together in downtown Chicago doing touristy things because we've lived here for a while but have never gotten to do any of those things.  Since Vinnie was driving back from St. Louis, and it's a 5 hour drive (with Chicago traffic 6 1/2), he didn't get home until around 6:00 pm.  Our reservations were at 7:30 pm.  He showered and packed a bag really quick and we headed downtown to The Mile North Hotel, which is the hotel we were staying at.  We got there just in time to put our things in our room, do a champagne toast (I had them deliver champagne to the room with a note for Vinnie before we got there), and hail a cab to take us to the restaurant.  We went to Geja's Cafe.  It's a fondue place and I had heard it was super romantic.  

Now let me backtrack and just tell you that I woke up not feeling very well that morning and this feeling continued throughout the day.  The problem I have is that whenever I don't feel good I don't feel like eating.  So I don't eat anything, for the whole day, which makes me feel even worse.

So we're at this romantic restaurant and we decide to do the 3 course meal, which consists of enough food for probably at least 4 people.  We order drinks, get the first course, and then comes the main course.  I'm feeling alright the whole time until the main course comes.  This course is just a bunch of raw meat and vegetables that you put on a skewer and sit in the hot oil to cook.  I forced myself to eat a few pieces of chicken and that's when it hit me.  All of a sudden I got this overwhelming feeling of nausea.  I started to notice how hot it was.  The place was small and all of the tables were packed tightly together and there burners were lit on every single table for the hot oil that cooks the meat.  Then I started to notice the smell of all of the raw meat.  I've never felt so sick in my whole life.  I just sat there drinking water and trying to enjoy our time together but eventually I got up to head to the bathroom.  Of course since the place was so small they only had one stall bathrooms and there was a line of about 5 women.  I finally got into the bathroom but couldn't do anything to feel better (trust me I even tried throwing up).  I didn't want all of the other women in line to have to wait so I went back to the table where I continued to feel worse and worse.  Next, they brought out chocolate fondue and lots of goodies to dip in the chocolate for dessert.  Normally, I would have been in heaven, but this night I couldn't even look at the chocolate let alone breathe through my nose and catch a whiff of it.  We had to ask for the bill and leave shortly after that.  The cab ride back to the hotel was the longest cab ride ever, the line for the elevators to get up to our room in the hotel was around the corner, and our toilet was having problems flushing so I didn't want to throw up in it and leave puke floating around.  I sat in the bathroom and tried to puke in the shower for about a half hour.  Nothing happened.  I ended up changing my clothes and laying in bed with my eyes closed for the next hour and eventually I started to feel better.  By this time it was already 11:00 pm, I had already changed into pajamas, I was a mess from all the sweating I did, and Vinnie had to work the next morning.  So we laid in bed, at this expensive hotel, and watched tv.  I felt terrible for ruining our night and of course Vinnie didn't care, he just wanted me to feel better.  Our first anniversary celebration was not much of a celebration.  I was just happy to be with the man that I love though.  We will have plenty more anniversaries to celebrate so I need to just let it go.

Champagne, chocolate, and note delivered to our room.

My handsome date.  If only I could have enjoyed that chocolate fondue.

I wish that we had taken a picture together this night.  I had a lovely dress that I bought and was saving specifically for this occasion but I can't even share it on here because I didn't take a picture with it!  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wear it again soon!

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!  Now the countdown for Christmas begins!  Yay!

XO. Tarah