thankful for thanksgiving

You can't go wrong with good food, great family, and football all day long!

This year my sister and her husband just bought their first house in San Antonio and she wanted to have Thanksgiving up there. So, we all headed up to their new pad for the holiday. On the way we stopped at Bucees - it was quite the experience. As Houston put it, "it's like the theme park of truck stops!" There was traffic exiting the highway from all the cars going to Bucees. H could not stop talking about how there were 30 gas pumps!whoa.

Once we made it to San Antonio, H was intent on getting some Carl's Jr. That boy and his fast food! He even went so far as to map out where all the Carl's Jrs were in San Antonio. So, once we got to my sister's place we all piled into Scotty's truck to make the trek to Houston's beloved Carl's Jr. We just so happened to pick the restaurant that was having it's grand opening! But, it was pretty good and definitely friendly! We brought the food back to the house and had a pre-Thanksgiving feast of Carl's Jr. Guacamole Bacon Burgers and buffalo wings at 9:30 the night before. It was delicious.

For Thanksgiving my parents and my grandparents were driving up that Thursday morning, so most of the cooking was left up to me and my sis. I guess she decided she did her part by waking up at 5 am to start the turkey and preparing that all by herself (psssh). I got left with the majority of the side dishes while my sister did her hair/make up :) I made the green bean casserole (Shara style with cheddar cheese at Tony's), spinach casserole (for Houston - it's a Harris family fav - this year it was much better than the one I made last year, not as bland, can't be afraid of that salt), sweet potatoes (Vanessa - Ben would be proud, they were MUCH better than last year, I guess it helped that the marshmallows weren't ridiculously old), and cheesy potatoes/funeral potatoes/potato casserole (whatever you call it - they are to die for). Last year I made Thanksgiving dinner by myself since we weren't around our family; this year I thought I wasn't going to have to make anything - I guess it's a sign of getting old. I actually do things in the kitchen now. Practice makes perfect. I was also in charge of the pumpkin pies and pumpkin cookies. Talk about a ton of food!

the boys

baha!! they were throwing the football in the back yard and it went over the fence. The neighbors had a ton of people over eating turkey dinner in the back yard - my dad asked them to throw the ball back.

love my mommy and my sister!

so proud of her turkey

scotty and Htown - boys! so excited to use the electric knife

yumm.

double yumm.

I needed two plates! what can I say - I don't like it when my food touches.

Houston's friend Troy lives in San Antonio now (going to med school) so he joined us for thanksgiving dinner, which was great! We loved having him there and Houston loved getting to spend time with his old roomie. We ate, tossed a football around outside, talked, watched football inside, and ate some more. How bout that Longhorn game? Hook 'em!
On Friday I did a little shopping with my mom, sister, and grandma. Then, Houst and I went to see Troy's town home he bought and where he goes to school. We tried to eat at a really cute thai restaurant that Troy liked but it was closed for Thanksgiving! Lame.

H and Troy - hangin at Troy's sweet place

That night I coerced Houston into joining us at Six Flags Fiesta Texas instead of studying. I know I'm horrible, but it wasn't really that hard once he realized that we would be riding rides. It was awesome! Definitely the highlight of the trip for me. They were having Holiday in the Park so there were christmas lights and christmas songs everywhere. There weren't a ton of people there so we never really waited in line and we got to ride all the rollercoasters twice! My parents even joined in on the rollercoaster-riding fun.

ha! so typical :)

what's a trip to a theme park without funnel cake?

And, on Saturday morning we headed home so that Houston could study some more for his finals. They start tomorrow!! He has been studying hard, so say a little prayer for him tomorrow evening!