If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

As our Thanksgiving holiday (and break from the normal routine of life) slowly begins to wind down, I am so thankful that it has been a rejuvinating, relaxing and overall very fun week.

Wednesday was my first day off, but Landon still had to work that morning, so I had a few hours to myself to run some errands, work out and get a few things done that I'd been putting off for weeks--fun stuff like cleaning my car and getting my hair cut, haha. It was a relaxing morning though and a wonderful way to start our Thanksgiving break. Then, that night we had some friends over to hang out and eat dinner (2 guys Landon grew up with and their wives) and it was such a fun night. We ate and laughed and caught up and told stories and laughed and reminisced about ACU and planned a vacation for this summer and laughed some more. It was a fun night--we are so blessed by their friendship and can't wait to see them again at Christmas.

Then, Thanksgiving morning we woke up bright and early and, after a stop to get Landon a paper and me a Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks, we headed out to Bryan to spend the day with Landon's family out at his grandparents house.

We spent about an hour visiting and then headed out to eat our thanksgiving lunch at Golden Corral--which was surprisingly good and surprisingly CROWDED. I was amazed at the number of families spending thanksgiving there. Landon was happy though--this year instead of turkey and dressing (which he is not a fan of) he had pizza and spaghetti and rolls and dessert--he said it was his favorite thanksgiving meal so far! :)

After lunch we headed back to his grandparents house, where we spend the day relaxing and looking at Black Friday ads and watching some football game on TV. It was fun being around family--since we don't always get to see my extended family during the holidays since none of them live in or even near Houston, it's always nice for me to get to hang out with all of Landon's cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and the enjoy the fun chaos that comes with being with large numbers of family.


Then, before Landon and I headed to my parents house, Elizabeth, Jana and I took their kids to the little playground down the street from the house--it was a beautiful day and the kids were so cute. I think they had a good timeplaying tag and playing in the rocks and running all through the play area!


Then that evening, when my family got home from the Michael's girlfriend's family's house, where they were doing Thanksgiving, we headed over to their house. We spent the rest of the evening snacking on leftovers, talking, laughing and looking at YouTube videos. I loved it and was so glad we were able to see them, even just for a few hours. Especially since it's rarer now that we can all be together in one place at one time. All in all it was a wonderful day and we have so much to be thankful for.


That night Landon and I hit the sack pretty early because we were both planning to get up at 5am to do a little shopping. Landon was shopping for my gift and I was shopping for some extended family gifts, so we headed in different directions. It was my first time to get out early with some specific deals on specific gifts I was wanting to get (aside from the computer monitors Landon and I got last year together)--and it was actually a lot of fun! I got everything I was hoping to get and got a good deal on everything--enough to justify getting up at that horrible hour :)--and the crowds where I was at really weren't that awful, which was nice. And, as I was leaving my last store there was a breathtaking sunrise that brought a smile to my face. I promise the picture below doesn't do it justice; I was wishing I had my real camera with me, but all I had was my cell phone.


Landon got home a little before me and when I got home I had fun showing him all my goodies--one of my favorites was this little sweater I got Baby ( a bonus find, haha) that she's actually not seeming to hate.
And then I found all of the presents in the chair for various members of our extended family. So fun! And, I managed not to spend a lot on random things for me that were a good deal, which I was proud of. :)

And then, totally unexpectedly, Landon gave me my Christmas present from him (or the big part of it, he says)--a new computer! And, which I am equally thrilled about, Lightroom--the photo editing software I have been wanting forever! I am SO excited--I really needed one because mine died about 6 months ago, but I had NO idea that was what he was out buying...and had no idea he had installed Lightroom on it until I stumbled across it as I was opening a picture. I seriously have the best husband in the world. I absoltely love it (and him!).

And, as if that weren't enough, he spent the rest of the day setting it all up for me--installing things, putting on my pictures and music, organizing everthing to the way that I like it etc--all the things I don't know enough to do on my own. :) He's awesome. And the day was awesome--around 8am I took a nap and thenwe just lounged around the house working on my computer and went out to Fry's to take advantage of one more deal, then lounged around the house some more until we met his family (the other side that we didn't see for Thanksgiving) for dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was a fun, low-key way to end a wonderfully relaxing day.

And today we had absolutely no plans, except for dinner tonight at my parents house. And we relished in that fact--because really, that doesn't happen very often, especially around the holidays. We got some things done today but there was nothing we HAD to do--and while I have a tendency to give myself a to do list a mile long on days like yesterday and today, I've been trying hard to not do that this week. I've tried to enjoy just being with my husband and to take advantage of the time to give my body some time to rest. We watched a movie together. I read my book. We went on a bike ride. We talked. It was nice.

And then tonight we had a fun evening with my family. Dinner was wonderful and it was nice just to catch up with everyone--we ate and talked and laughed and I'm already looking forward to the next time we can do it. And for any family reading this--next time we promise to get there early to cook instead of just showing up at dinner time!! :) And, thanks for putting up with all of our running talk...we'll also try to broaden our conversation topics, haha.

It has been a rejuvinating week. and one that was much needed. I feel like tomorrow starts us back to real life, but it's ok. I feel ready to take on life again and I'm already getting excited for Christmas--even though I definitely wouldn't mind another week of vacation!