An Early Turkey Day...

Friends, I hope you had the best Thanksgiving with your family and friends. 

I decided to take the rest of last week off from blogging so I could focus on family and enjoy as much as time as possible with them. 

Of course, now that we're in Austin, our Thanksgiving looks different this year than it has in the past. We typically ditch DJ and head to my parents in Arkansas, but it was too far this year, and with my new job, I needed to work. The girls were disappointed that also weren't going to be making our annual Branson trip on Thanksgiving weekend. 

Texas played in Kansas on Friday, which meant that DJ would be traveling on Thanksgiving day. (And I would be traveling too because I was able to go to the game with him.) So, we decided to host Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night and invite his staff over for dinner. 

Since DJ's mom was in town, she took care of the turkey, dressing, and deviled eggs, and I took care of a lot of the casseroles. Wednesday morning, she and Gretchen baked our pumpkin pie. 

We set out a few appetizers for our guests, and dove in to dinner as soon as it was ready. 

DJ carved the turkey, and I pulled out the casseroles so we could eat.

Dinner was delicious, and Gretchen's pie was too. 

The girls showed our guests a few magic tricks and kept them entertained. 

The kids made fast friends with our company.  

We laughed and chatted our shared football stories most of the evening. 

And after a while, my cell phone was stolen and the kids took photos upstairs. 

We had a great night with new friends. We are so thankful that God has put us in Austin with Texas football. 

Thursday morning, this sweet girl was having a hard time with us leaving. She required lots of extra cuddles and attention. At one point, she went upstairs and packed her own suitcase in hopes that she could go with us. 

We spent Thanksgiving morning watching the parade, 

and Gretchen played card games. 

at noon, I said goodbye to these sweet girls who were playing "parade" upstairs and met DJ at the stadium for a quick 24 hour getaway to Kansas.

Friends, we hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. Even if yours looked different this year too, there's so much to be thankful for.