Food, family, friends, and football

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know we've all moved on to Christmas, but I'm still catching up from Thanksgiving. We generally travel for Thanksgiving, but this year, we convinced my wonderful in-laws to join us in St. Louis. What a nice change! It was wonderful to have them here, and it was so fun to get to host the big meal in our own home. And what a meal it was! Per our usual arrangement, Matt took care of the savory, and I covered the bread and desserts.

B was starving when he woke up from his nap, and we could barely get him to the table before he lost it. But once his plate was filled with food, all was right with the world. Turns out he's a big fan of cranberry sauce and, not surprisingly because they were a-mazing, sweet potato biscuits with marshmallows.

We had a wonderful meal and then took a few hours to let our tummies settle before dessert. Several friends and their little ones joined us in the evening for desserts and drinks, which was just the right way to end the day. Oh, and a little football, of course (Go Cowboys!).

The next morning, we celebrated Hanukkah with a few gifts. B loved his new truck and menorah and our new fox cookie jar (Who is awesome, by the way. We named him Seamus.), but most of all, he loved the tissue paper. Why do we even bother with gifts? :)

One of the reasons we asked the in-laws to come to us was terribly selfish: we wanted to go to the A&M/Mizzou football game on Saturday, and we needed all-day babysitters. Thankfully, they were more than happy to oblige. My sister and brother-in-law and our friends Chris and Stephanie joined us for the big day, and after a quick stop at Trader Joe's (where an associate heckled us because of our shirts) for some grub, we all caravanned out to Columbia on Saturday morning.

After walking through the Mizzou campus and catching lunch at a local brewery and then some delicious local ice cream, we did a little tailgating, complete with a mini cornhole tournament.

 

Though we lost the game, it was fun to be back at a college game and supporting the Aggies. The biggest bummer was the fact that the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band didn't travel with the team, but we did get to see the Yell Leaders and Johnny Football (two-time Heisman winner, natch).

We ended the visit with several trips to our new favorite coffee shop and some general lounging and hanging out. It was so fun to have everyone here for the start of the holidays, and now it's just a few more weeks until more family and more holidays! I love this time of year.