Happy Turkey Day

well, Houston was complaining that I hadn't updated our blog in awhile, and if that's the case then it's definitely been a while since I've written anything! We hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. This year was our first time ever making our very own thanksgiving dinner. Since Houston and I (more Houston than me) had to work over thanksgiving we couldn't really leave to go back home, but we made the best of it. Ben, Vanessa, Forrest, and Sarah all came over for the day and later on in the evening my friend Emily from work came over because her husband had to go to work that night and she wanted some company. The day started out with Houston making Monkey Bread for breakfast, which was delicious and immediately demolished. I didn't even get any pictures of it. Then came all the rest of the cooking!! I did all the side dishes and desserts while Houston was in charge of the turkey and the fried okra he insisted on so much. The night before he had to cook the turkey Houston stayed up late watching videos on the Food Network's website about how to cook your turkey. And, those videos sure did pay off because the turkey was great! Along with turkey we had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, spinach casserole (a harris family fav), dressing, sweet potatoes, fried okra, cranberry sauce, rolls, gravy, and chocolate pecan pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. Needless to say we were all in a turkey coma for the rest of the evening! Poor Emily probably thought we were all really boring! Everything else turned out pretty well too, except the sweet potatoes. The marshmallows were hard as rocks! And, weirdly enough that was the only thing I've ever had experience making and they were perfect last year! Oh well, one thing not turning out is ok I guess. Next year I'll just have to redeem myself but since we will most likely be back home for next years thanksgiving, I'm secretly hoping I won't have to cook anything but the pumpking pie, just like when I was little! I don't know why, but growing up that was always my job. Pumpkin pie and setting the table. Speaking of setting the table...we used our fancy china for the first time since we got married. I was kind of nervous, it's expensive and I always keep it in the boxes because I don't really have anywhere nice to store it, so officially taking the china out of the box and USING it was a big step! I told Houston that I wanted to use it about a month ago but when it came down to it, Houston had to coax me into really using it. But, I'm glad I did because I took pictures of the table and sent it to my grandma and grandpa (who bought all our china for us when we got married) and grandma was so excited! My dad said she got all teary eyed talking about it!

The day after thanksgiving was Black Friday of course! This is the one time during the holidays that I really don't mind working. It is purely because of the entertainment value and it's definitely worth it. Those people are crazy!! I woke up at 3:30, got to work at 4 am, and it was non stop until I left at 10 am. People were lined up starting around midnight for some of the xbox stuff that was on sale and I felt bad for all the people who "lined up" for items like they were told to. By the time 5 am rolled around it was time to let them at everything, the people who nicely lined up for their item didn't get anything because of all the people who didn't follow the rules. That's life I guess, but I just felt bad for them. The only thing that stinks about having to work black friday is that I don't get any of the good deals. I saw all the cool things I thought about getting for Houston come and go pretty quickly, but on the other hand, if I hadn't been working I definitely wouldn't have gotten up early to go shopping in that madness so I guess it truly doesn't change anything. Houston's store in American Fork and my store in Orem were pretty tame this year. But, a lady in the Springville store fell and broke her arm during the madness! Last year Houston had a fight break out in his store and had to fill out accident reports for people who got hit in the head with boxes! Just crazy! Every thanksgiving when I was growing up we would go to the movies that night and then come home and eat turkey sandwiches. But, ever since Houston and I have worked in retail we know how much it stinks working the holidays so we don't really like to make other people work. So, we went to go see Four Christmases on Friday night instead. We went with Ben and Vanessa, got Sub Zero ice cream, walked the mall, and the movie was great!! If anyone is thinking of seeing it I'd recommend it. A nice date movie, a little mix between chick flick and man humor :)

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and here are some pictures of our week for your enjoyment!

my fancy platinum china in all its glory :)

my table settings with my cute little leaf napkin rings!

Houston's pretty turkey!

Haha! I was upstairs doing something, when I came down stairs Ben had come back from his house with some of his tools (I don't know what it's called but we're talking work with wood, power tools here!) because Houston wanted to cut the turkey! Silly boys! I told Houston we had an electric carver we got for our wedding and he was so excited to cut his turkey. It was kinda funny.

My two plates. I'm really not that much of a fatty, just trying to separate my sweet potatoes from the rest of my salty food!

Ben and Vanessa

Me and the hubs! check out his cute new glasses! we kind of match :)

fo and sarah