New Black Friday Tradition

On Black Friday, our family came over again (they stayed in hotels on Thanksgiving night) for a new tradition: painting and decorating cookies! My mom watered down some icing, divided it up into separate cupcake tins, and then died them all different colors. We baked a bunch of sugar cookies and everyone painted and decorated away!

 Vivi was very excited.

Gavin got really into it, too.

 Everyone painted a cookie!

 And then, things started to get messy...

Her Special Coloring Spot

 

Vivi likes to do things by herself, without being bothered by Gavin. This is challenging on most days since Gavin makes it his daily job to be up in everyone's business. Well, when Viv really wants to color (with crayons, chalk, or pens) by herself and one of us is in the kitchen, we'll let her color on the counter. She loves her special spot.

But every once in a while, Gavin will figure out where she is and convince Wes to be his personal ladder.

Thanksgiving 2011

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house in Harrisonburg this year. We had 13 adults and our two kiddos over for appetizers, games, dinner, and pie. It was definitely a fun time.

We started the day off by playing a few games (with prizes!) and eating a ton of appetizers. Here are the prizes that each winner picked:

Then it was time for dinner, which was put together by just about everyone who attended. Delicious!

More to come about our Black Friday festivities...

New Orleans

Last week, I went to New Orleans for four days for the National Communication Association Conference. Thursday was spent traveling down to NOLA and Sunday was spent traveling back up to VA, but Friday and Saturday were filled with presentations, great food, and amazing time with friends. Although I didn't take that many pics (I was way off my normal photo-taking game), I had so much fun catching up with everyone. 

On Friday, I presented a paper from my dissertation research and then had breakfast with a Purdue friend, Elizabeth. Lunch was an incredible crab meat cheesecake and bananas foster with my friend, Kelly, who I haven't seen for over five years. Then, I met my peach tree friends (Rebecca, Elizabeth, and Brenda) for dinner before heading over to the Purdue party for some dessert.

On Saturday, I went to Cafe du Monde with my friends, Ashley, Rebecca, and Colleen, for some beignets. 

Jackson Square:

I had two more presentations on Saturday and then went out to lunch with another Purdue friend, Heather. Last, but certainly not least, I spent the evening with Kelly again. We went out to eat and then came back to my hotel, ordered room service for dessert and just watched tv.

It was so great to see everyone, but I really missed Wes and the kiddos. I don't think I'll be leaving for four days straight by myself again any time soon.