Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This year for Thanksgiving my roommate Kimberly and I decided that it would be fun to take on the task of hosting the Thanksgiving meal. Neither of us had ever really done a turkey by ourselves before and I was excited for this opportunity; I feel so grown up! We invited just a few friends over, there were seven of us total, and it was a good sized group for our first Thanksgiving. We gave everyone a food assignment and they all did an amazing job! Aside from everyone running late, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch! Surprisingly, it wasn't even stressful, we gave ourselves plenty of time to get everything ready and we cleaned up as we went along and by the time 2:00 came around all we had to do was carve the turkey. I think that Kimberly and I did a great job on our first turkey. While we ate we went around the table and expressed what we were thankful for, I am so thankful for my family and the many wonderful people that surround me in my life! I am truly blessed! After dinner we loaded the dishwasher and put food away and then we sat around talking until the subject of 'the worm' (a dance move) came up, our friend Ally gave us all a wonderful demonstration of how to do 'the worm' which was followed by everyone taking turns trying it out-what better way to make room for pie??? After eating the delicious pie we topped off the night by going to "Tangled" in 3D and can I just say that it is a fabulous movie and I think that everyone should it!! I was laughing my head off the whole time!! I definitely missed not being with family for Thanksgiving but this was definitely the best alternative that I could have hoped for!! Thank you everyone!!!

Monticello!!

I have been wanting to go to Monticello for some time now and now I can finally say that I have been there! I was especially lucky because I was able to make it down there in the fall and not only was the property beautiful but the drive down and back was also beautiful! I just love the fall!!! I went down with my friend Kyle and we had a great time visiting Thomas Jefferson's home. The home itself is amazing, he spent 40 years building, adding onto and renovating the place. His property is some 5,000 acres and it is incredible! We took a tour of the house and then walked around the property. Thomas Jefferson was a very intelligent man and he dabbled in many areas of expertise. He invented a lot of things for convenience sake and it was neat to see some of those inventions he came up with. We walked down to the little cemetary and saw his tombstone as well as others in his family. We went through the visitor center and learned even more about Mr Jefferson. After our visit to Monticello was complete we went over to Michie Tavern where we enjoyed a late lunch. This tavern is a historical place where Jefferson himself went to eat on occasion. It has been around since 1784! It was a buffet of home cooked food that would have been eaten back in the day, it included: fried chicken, pulled pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, cornbread, coleslaw, stewed tomatoes, and green beans-oh and the best apple cider ever! We ate off of metal plates and drank from tin cups and the workers were all dressed up in outfits from Thomas Jefferson's time. It was an all around amazing experience!!