Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I hope y'all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  I love any excuse to spend time with my family, so mine was wonderful.  I started the morning in the kitchen with my mom finishing up last minute lunch dishes and listening to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the other room.  I just love traditions!  Every time we'd hear something coming up that we knew we wanted to see, Mama and I would drop the knife or whatever instrument was in our hands and run into the living room to watch.  I love being in the kitchen with my mom.  She cooks exactly like my grandmother did.  I've learned, and even mastered, a few of our traditional Thanksgiving recipes over the years, but she always amazes me.  I keep saying I'm going to learn her (Grandmother's) dressing (not stuffing!) recipe.  She makes that difficult..."well, you just add a little of this and a little of that and then you taste it and see what it needs."  Got it, Mama.  :/ 

 

Family started arriving around noon and the first to show were my cousins, Nikki and Shaun.  Now, if you know anything about Nikki and me, you know we've grown up the best of friends and anytime the two of us are together something stupid is going to happen.  Good-stupid, bad-stupid, funny-stupid...just something stupid.  Well, yesterday was no exception.  Mama mentioned a little something about a Santa suit she had in one of her closets. Nikki's and my eyes lit up immediately.  We knew what we had to do.

 





 

Dressed within 5 minutes we quickly ran outside to await more of our family and wave at the cars that would pass.  The cars humored us and waved.  Some even honked, which was really exciting for us.  The next people to arrive were Nikki's parents, sister, and cousin.  They looked at us like we were crazy, but also with the, "it's Jessica and Nikki, what do you expect?" look and walked right past us into the house.  At that point we'd had our fun and figured it was time to put the Santa suit away before my niece arrived and we ruined Christmas for her at age two.

 

Pretty soon there were 18 of us all cozy in the house flipping the TV channels between the dog show and football, waiting for lunch to be ready.

 

Lunch was ready around 1, and Mama set it up buffet style in the kitchen.  So we all lined up to fix our plates then took our place around one of the tables.  At 34 years old, I still haven't graduated from the "kids' table," which is fine with me.  I think I was the oldest at that table this year, so my time for movin' up may be coming!

 

After lunch we continued with another tradition of ours...LEAVES!  Every Thanksgiving we pile up the leaves and play in them.  (This tradition was brought on by me, and might be why they're making me stay at the kids' table.)  So Drew got the blower out and made us a big ol' pile and we played in them for about an hour.  I was still pulling leaves from my boots and from down my shirt at bedtime last night!

 

 

I just loved spending the whole afternoon with my family.  I wish I had gotten more pictures of everybody!

 

Last night a few of us went over to my sister's house to watch the dreaded Egg Bowl.  We ate shrimp creole and had adult beverages...it was a good time.  And, although we lost (typical rebs), I will say that watching the game by the fire with a glass of wine was much better than in the stadium with high winds and 20 degree weather like last weekend!

 

 

I'm not sure if my heart can take anymore Egg Bowls, by the way. 

 

 

A rebel win would have made yesterday perfect, but all in all it was pretty great!  I adore my family, so I love, love the holiday season and spending so much time with all of them.  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

Happy Holidays!

 

 

Jess



 

North Mississippi Allstars, Rebels, and Katniss Everdeen...A Weekend Recap

I'm a little late posting my weekend recap.  The school semester is coming to an end and I've been swamped since I got back to Memphis!  But I had an AWESOME weekend!

So this was the first game this season that I didn't have a place in Oxford.  (And thankfully the last.)  We went back and forth so much with our plans.  Do we try to find someone to crash with for the weekend?  Do we just rent a limo to take us down there Saturday morning and bring us back Saturday night?  Plans changed a few times.  My sister, BIL, nephew, one of my fav friends, and I ended up heading down Friday afternoon and staying with some friends for the night, and I'm glad we did!  We had so much fun!  We got to town around 5 and shortly after my nephew was invited to go to the Rebels basketball game and spend the night with some of his friends, so the adults headed out for a fun night.  We started out with drinks on the square...always fun...then moved on for dinner (and more drinks, of course.) 

 As luck would have it, the North Mississippi Allstars were playing at The Lyric on the square Friday, so of course we couldn't miss that!  If you haven't checked them out, do it!  Awesome!

 

You know it's about to get real when they bring out the washboard!

The show was awesome!

 

The last three of us that made it out the longest finally decided it was time to catch a cab and get home.  We had a big day ahead of us.  Oh...and leave it to me to NOT see a step (that's the story I'm sticking with anyways) and fall straight forward...ALL the way down...once we get outside.  Thankfully my knees caught me before my face hit the concrete.  And considering I didn't even rip my leather leggings, I'm calling this one a success.

 



(Excuse the pasty skin color...I gave up tanning because it was starting to make me look old.)

 

Oh, and my sister in reference to my injury: "Well, that's one of your less severe ones."  She's right.  :/

 

Saturday morning was REEEEEAAAAAL questionable.  At one point I woke up and promised I wasn't going to the grove OR to the game.  I was going to lay right there in that bed until I could stand up without puking and then crawl to my car and drive home.  Thankfully by about 8:30 I was sort of in the land of the living and could get up, eat something, and start getting ready.  Can't say the same for my friend...he took a little longer.  But by the time we got out to the grove we were both able to rally and get the party started all over again. 

 

 

 



At this tailgate we all wrote on cards things we were thankful for and displayed them on a line of twine.  These were a few of my favorites.  :)

Some of my favorite ladies!  (Trying really hard to stay warm!)

 

 

 

Before we knew it, and way before I was ready to endure more cold, it was time to head in to the stadium.  We played Mizzou on Saturday and it was STUPID cold.  The only thing I remember from the game was trying to stay warm.  Oh, and my friend acting real confused during the Hotty Toddy chant.  He was a real trooper, though.  He played the rebel part well all weekend, especially considering he's a...shhhh...vol.  :/  Somehow, though, my family found a way to accept him.  (haha)  Anyways, we lost to Mizzou and I honestly didn't even care.  I was just ready to get warm.  Still love my rebs!  Hotty Toddy!

 

When the game was over we went ahead and jumped in the car and headed back to Memphis.  I had to be at church Sunday morning and getting home late Saturday sounded better than having to get up really early on Sunday.

 

 

 

Sunday after church some friends got together to go see Catching Fire, the new Hunger Games movie.  It was right in line with the book and I LOVED it!  Nikki and I were like giddy little girls in the theater the whole time.  So good.  Plus I have a girl-crush on Jennifer Lawrence/Katniss Everdeen.  The boys were a little less enthused, but what do they know?  After the movie we went for Mexican to end the fun weekend.  Annnnd I've had my nose in school books ever since. 

 

 

How was your weekend?

 

 

 

Jess



Weekend Recap

 

What a fun weekend!  We had a home game this weekend so Oxford was poppin'!  I spent most of Thursday and early Friday getting ready for our tailgate...relabeling water bottles to say "Ole Miss," painting an old, giant picture frame red, painting terracotta flower pots to look like Colonel Reb...you know, the usual.  My peeps all got to Oxford Friday night.  LOVED, LOVED having some of my best friends in town for the weekend!  Bro-in-law grilled us dinner and of course there was wine involved...apparently more than we really remember...and we all went to a friend's house for a little bit to visit with everyone that was just making it to town.

 

 

Loved my late night cuddles (and impromptu boxing match) with this beautiful lady!  She moved to Nashville shortly after I moved to Oxford and we just haven't been to get able to get together as often as we used to.  It's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, because she didn't get on my nerves once this weekend!  ;)  I kid!  I Love her!  We went to bed meant to go to bed early Friday so we'd be ready for Saturday's festivities, but being reunited with her and my other BFFs proved way too much fun for that to happen. 

 

Still, we got up bright and early...and by bright and early I mean it wasn't bright at all because it was so early...Saturday morning so we could be in the grove by 7a to start setting up for our tailgate.  Ole Miss played Arkansas Saturday, and since it was an early game we had breakfast foods, mimosas, and bloody marys to start the day.

 

our bloody mary bar

 

While most of our group went to the game, a few of us stayed out and awaited the arrival of our main course for the postgame festivities, Petey the Pig.  Like I said earlier, we were playing Arkansas so we knew our main meal would be BBQ.  I mean, makes sense, right?  We were playing the hogs.  We took it one step further and ordered a whole smoked hog.  And by whole, I mean...well, the whole darn thing.

 

Petey the Pig

 

 

Don't worry and don't be offended...we didn't just kill a pig for shits and giggles or to display in bad taste.  We ate him and he was delicious.  And besides, we gave him a proper memorial beforehand:

 

(No, that's not really a picture of our actual pig.  That would be terrible.)

 

Thankfully the Rebs beat Arkansas 34-24 (hotty toddy!).  This meant everyone came back for the postgame tailgate in a good mood and ready to eat!  I'm not even sure there was anything left of that pig by the time we packed up. 

 

By the way, it's ridiculous how much fun can be had with a hanging picture frame and a little chalkboard:

 notice the handcuffs in these two pictures...TROUBLE

 

 

Another exciting thing about Saturday was FINALLY getting to meet this lovely face-to-face!

We've been blog/twitter/instagram friends for over a year.  We met Saturday in person and it felt like we'd been hanging out for years!  Love her to pieces!

 

Loved having my BFF (cousin) and her husband this weekend!  They're Auburn fans, so props to them for playing the Ole Miss part! 

 

After packing up our tailgate we went back to my house to charge our phones (priorities) and take a cat nap before heading over to my friend's house for more cocktails and the Alabama/LSU game.  Our plans to head to the square that night just didn't happen.  I didn't even see the final score of the Bama/LSU game. We were SO worn out from the fun of the day that I'm pretty sure everyone at my house was passed smooth out by 10p!

 

My Sunday has consisted of driving to Memphis, going to church, lunch with mama and little sis, taking care of my brother's chickens, leading youth groups, finishing an article review for my Psychology class, and taking care of a friend's dog.  Normal?  I think so.

 

 

Such a fun weekend!  I loved being around so many people that I adore so much!  How was your weekend?

 

                                                                                                               Jess