whoa whoa...where are the posts????

So it's been quite a while since I last posted. I mean whoa. We even had Thanksgiving in between it all. So lets recap what has happened since my last post.

Thanksgiving - that was super fun! My mom goes ALL out! I mean she totally converts her house to look like a restaurant. You heard right. she completely takes away the family room, the dining room and formal living to make them the banquet room, buffet room, and conversation room. This makes for GREAT entertaining because there is no shuffling about, no crowding in one spot to get to the food. Just great fun.

At Thanksgiving every year we do a gift exchange draw. BUT here is where it gets good. We actually have two gift exchange draw - one is a regular store bought gift within $25-$40 the other is a homemade gift where we can only spend $20 total on our supplies. This is soo exciting as it keeps people guessing when they show up to the house and see all of the homemade gifts displayed. This is by far my favorite time of the year!

We definitely had good food, good laughs and good fun. This was the menu on the buffet:
Tossed green salad with artichoke
Spinach Cannelloni
Lemon butter drenched chicken
Broccoli rice casserole
Green bean casserole
Oven roasted Turkey

We also had a dessert buffet as well that had:
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate cake
Italian Cream cake

It's like whoa... this was by far one of the yummiest Thanksgivings... def!

We also did something new this year that was a welcome change. We had everyone (friends and family alike) fill out cards that listed 3 accomplishments for the year. Then I picked up all the cards and read one from each card. There were some that were really funny, so I would read those. But then there were some that were really serious accomplishments. Let me give you some example of what some people wrote. You decide if they are serious or funny!

1) We have still $10 left in our 401K
2) I installed a garage light sensor and didn't get shocked!
3) The restaurant has continued to be successful
4) Thanks Dennis (my stepdad) for paying for Elle's (my sister) wedding - this was written by my dad!
5) Thanks Johnny (my dad) for paying for Elle's (my sister) wedding - this was written by my stepdad!
6) My business has taken off really well.
7) I got a new car
8) I bought a new house
9) I got rid of one of my biggest pains this year.
10) I got married and didn't get pregnant.

As you can see reading these amongst friends and family could be super funny!!! I encourage anyone that reads this to try it out in your family. You will see how much fun it can be!

Anyway. our TG was wonderful and I can't wait for Christmas - I hope to get a new camera so that I can have pictures of everything and can blog better.

Hasta!
Adri