Thanksgiving 2015 Recap

We turkeyed, we lurkeyed, and we turkeyed some more! 

Thanksgiving 2015 was celebrated over an action-packed three day span.  Since last week, I've found myself battling a bit of a cold, but thankfully after an extended holiday from work and a little extra R&R I was feeling so much better come midday Thursday for the first of our feasts! 

Thursday was our little twosome celebration.  Rob made a small ham in the crockpot with veggies.  This first meal, albeit no fuss, was still wonderfully tasty - even through my malfunctioning taste buds!  It was our first time doing the ham in the crockpot and it turned out fabulously!  The meat was tender and juicy - and we really enjoyed the fix-it-and-forget-it-ness of the whole thing! 



I failed at taking photos of most of the food, but I did take this of Gatsby, so enjoy! ♥☺

After enjoying our dinner, I saddled up for a little pre-Black Friday shopping trip!  I go out every year, usually on Thanksgiving night since we don't typically do the huge family get-togethers that day.  My mom works at a place that can't just close for the holidays, so we've always gotten a little creative with our celebratory planning!  To me, it's more about celebrating together when you can all be together, and less about celebrating on a particular day! 

I ended up hitting Target, Kohl's, Meijer, and Ulta.....and was able to put a pretty nice dent in my Christmas shopping!  I got home, showed Rob {most} of my finds, put everything away and relaxed with my main squeeze for the rest of the night!  After a few hours of slumber, I crept back out to hit Barnes & Nobel!  I was most excited to go here of all the places - they've had special signed editions of several hardcover books the past year or so and I just can't control myself!!!! 

These will make lovely additions to my bookshelf!

The rest of Friday morning was spent enjoying a lovely breakfast prepared by this cute guy I know and more lurking of online sales!  By this point, I'm pretty much done with my shopping - I've just got a few odds and ends to pick up yet! 

Friday afternoon we headed back over to the West side of the state for dinner with my family!  Bootsgiving 2015 proved to be a huge success!  The bird was a beauty, the stuffing was rich, the gravy was flowing, the deviled eggs were divine, the wine was poured, and the company was there to complete the perfect Thanksgiving table!  Dinner was amazing; we gorged ourselves silly, and reveled in each others company!  Thank the heavens my sick-kid taste buds finally took a hike!!!

After dinner we played a little rummy and my sister snuck up out of no where and demolished us all!  I came in last place if you were wondering....it's been a while since I've won, but boy do I enjoy the game!  That's okay, I totally won with my mom's homemade pumpkin pie - 2013 was a good year for pumpkin.  Mmmmm....

Lauren and I crafted this little Thanksgiving Day Want Ad for a Planeteer-esque roommate.  She told me I had to use all of the words - I think I made it work...or at least I'm giving myself an A for effort. 

When your powers combine....I am CAPTAIN PLANET!  Because, you know, we're thankful for the Earth...

Before we left to head back home, we had to do a little photo shoot.  Here are a few of my favorites. 
I'm really thankful I live close enough to my family to be able to spend this time with them.  They mean the world to me. 

Me, Mom, and Lauren ♥♥♥

 

Me and Rob ♥♥♥

 

Sisters Senior Photo Shoot!  ☺

Saturday we enjoyed yet another breathtaking Rob-original breakfast creation, followed by some Star Wars - getting in the zone for Episode Seven later this month!   I prepared a quick Apple Crisp and we were off to Rob's parent's house for Dertsgiving 2015!  Here I aided Rob in carving the most gigantic turkey I've ever seen!  (By 'aid' I mean I held my phone as a flashlight to help him see....me wield a large electric knife....hahahah - never in one hundred thousand years would you want that to happen!!)  But seriously folks, this thing wouldn't quit!  He kept carving and carving, cutting and cutting, and there was just more meat!  I couldn't believe it!  We did finally find the bone, but even the wishbone came out completely encased! 

When it came time to eat, we were placed at a very special table thanks to the seating creativity of Rob's 6-year old niece.

Behold, THE BIG KID TABLE OF BANISHMENT...

Banishment is clearly everything you would expect! ☺ 

 Don't let our expressions fool you....we really did enjoy ourselves and the food was delicious!  Rob's dad made his amazing applesauce, and there were these unreal roll-things filled with cheese, garlic, and herbs! 

After dinner we relaxed, digested, and enjoyed catching up!  It was nice to have Rob's brother, sister-in-law and their two kiddos home for the holiday!  They recently moved to the Boston area, and we've all missed them!

I'm sneaky...shhh ♥♥♥

We finished Saturday and Sunday up by taking it easy, relaxing on the couch and catching up on more Star Wars - all the way through Attack of the Clones!  It was a perfect long holiday weekend, even though it started off with a the sniffles, a bunch of tissue, and copious amounts of over the counter drugs. 

There are so many things I'm thankful for always, but this time of year always has a way of really bringing those things to the surface of my thoughts.  I'm thankful for the basics; I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clean water to drink, a job, people {and a Gatsby} who I love who also love me back.  Simple and to the point, Walt Whitman said it best, “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough."  Being with the ones you love {even if it's only through an email, a call or a text} is enough.  That's it after all....what's really important.  ♥  

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!

Easter Weekend Roamings

So I've been a bit of a bad blogger, huh?!  You'd almost think I gave up blogging for Lent!  Hah, I didn't....I just had absolutely no desire to do anything particular so I didn't really have much to share!  It's been a lazy couple of months to say the least.  But this weekend I got out of the house - out of Grand Rapids and went on a little adventure with my beau!!

Our anniversary is coming up this week so I took Rob on a weekend date-cation to celebrate!  I kind of gave away the surprise a month ago or so, so I could plan around  his on-call schedule or anything else that could possibly interfere with our fun!  I "surprised" him with tickets to a Tigers Game so we headed over to Detroit on Friday to make a weekend of it.

▲▼▲ FRIDAY ▲▼▲

I took Friday off work so I could relax, clean the apartment, do some laundry, etc., etc., etc. When Rob got home we headed out.  Of course we had to make a quick stop at the Outlet Mall in Howell on our way across the state!  I replenished my candle collection with some great Spring/Summer scents and took home a few new clothing steals too!  (Okay, truth telling time - I gave up Shopping for Lent.  I was really good this time - so I figured it was okay to cheat a little so close to the end!  I mean, I didn't go crazy or anything!!) ☺

We arrived in Detroit around 8ish and checked in to the hotel, cleaned ourselves up and ventured out into the night in search of dinner!  Rob had heard good things about Fishbones, so we went there!  We started with Flaming Cheese!!  Rob had Jambalaya and I got a Crunch Roll.  Both were delicious!  They had a HUGE menu - and everything looked terrific - I definitely recommend checking them out if you're ever in the area!

Next we wandered over to the Greektown Casino - and managed to go in the back door!  There's a whole little village of shops and eatery type places back there, complete with faux shrubbery!  Neither one of us is much of a gambler.  In fact, we were watching some of the table games and decided that we basically understood nothing that was going on...so we made our way to the video game side - Hello Penny Slots!  I lost $3.00 and Rob somewhere around $6.00ish.  We did some people watching and exploring and then decided to wander back to the hotel, finding ourselves in the hotel bar for a nightcap before heading up to our room for the night!

▲▼▲ SATURDAY ▲▼▲

Game Day!  We woke up, grabbed a quick bite to eat and some coffee and headed out to Tailgate a bit.  The Tigers played the LA Angels and even won 5-2 which was awesome because they kind of got their butts kicked the night before!  The weather turned out great too!!!  The beer was flowing and our seats were in the sunshine so we even got a little pink-cheeked (with a minor case of raccoon-eye) - oh the wonderful beginning signs of summer!!  ☼  Rob picked up some new Tiger Gear (a shirt and a hat) and I got a tee-shirt too - my first official Tiger merch (not counting a VS tee from a few years back)!  

We did a post-game dinner / beer deal at the Detroit Beer Company - Rob had the 'Hair of the Dog' Burger and I devoured a Grilled Cheese with bacon and granny smith apples! Yum!!  After dinner we headed back to the room, relaxed a bit in the hot tub and then popped down to the hotel bar again!  Creatures of habit, you know...  Deciding that we wanted to get out on the town a little more, but not wanting to venture too far out we headed across the street and discovered this little po-dunk, hole-in-the-wall bar called The Bathtub Pub.  It was interesting - kind of looks like it's closed on the outside, but its just a great little secret spot.  We even got a basket of free fries (I don't personally like potatoes, but Rob enjoyed them) - either way, it was a nice gesture.  We were introduced to a new weird little cartoon called Golan the Insatiable (something about a cast-out demon and the little goth girl he befriends)?  One more trip to the other hotel bar and that was a night.  

▲▼▲ SUNDAY ▲▼▲

Happy Easter!  We checked out, had breakfast/lunch at Lafayette Coney Island and headed home....or to IKEA rather!  I tried the meatballs!!!  Finally...tricked out with gravy and lingonberry jam....and they were awesome!  We got some new trow pillows and shams and a new summer comforter because ours is too warm.  We ended up back in GR around 4:45pm and were welcomed home by a noisy little kitty!  The Easter Bunny even dropped by with a little surprise!  We wrapped up Easter with a low-key pasta dinner and some relaxing couch time!  And, we started watching Bob's Burgers on Netflix - which we both like so far!  It's kind of one of those sick-funny animated sitcoms for adults - similar to something along the same line as Family Guy or The Simpsons.  

The weekend was fabulous - and getting away for a little while was just what we both needed!  Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter weekend!  

Weekend Recap: Teenage Vamps, Bubble Tea and Brews

 

This past weekend was pretty laid back, but definitely successful! 

My bestfriend, Allison, came in town for a visit and we popped over to the theater to enjoy a viewing of Vampire Academy!  It was okay; nothing life-changing, but I enjoy most movies I see without too much extra thought!  Would I recommend it to the masses: probably not, but if you gravitate toward anything labeled "Young Adult" then this might be right up your alley!  I'm basically a 28-year-old child when it comes to books, TV and movie selections!  So, teen vampires in high school - I couldn't resist!

We enjoyed some Fro-yo Friday before the show and then made an appearance at Founders Brewing Company afterward, and finally wrapped up the evening at the Casa over a few more brews and some Netflix!

On Saturday, when we finally managed to coax ourselves out into the world, we went in search of Bubble Tea!  We both acquired a fondness for the delicious jelly bubbles in college, but we had yet to discover a place that could compare!

Enter:  The Sparrows! 

Forgive the glare!  We actually had some sun!

We LOVED it!  So much so that we each enjoyed two teas a piece!  (We couldn't resist grabbing one to-go!)

It was an adorable little café tucked away on Wealthy Street!  If you're in the GR area, definitely check it out!  They have so many options!

Here's a peek at the inside!  All those jars on top of the counter are different loose tea options!!

The menu had so many tasty looking drinkable treats it was a tough decision, but I knew I had to follow my heart and go for the Bubble Tea! 

 

And just to make things even harder to decide they had all these awesome options....

 

We'll definitely be working trips here into our future bestie outings!!!  I tried the Boba Fett special for my to-go tea and wasn't disappointed!  I was really curious about the popping boba, which the gal behind the counter described as being kind of like "Gushers!"  (Tell me you remember those fun little delights - chewy on the outside like a fruit roll-up but when you squish it between your teeth - you're met with a sweet gooey semi-liquid fruit ooze surprise!)  Unfortunately the popping boba weren't quite that interesting, but they were still pretty good.  The didn't ooze, but they did definitely POP! and kind of explode with fruity juicy stuff - so still a pretty cool surprise!  Call me a traditionalist though, I still prefer the plain ole' traditional tapioca pearls!

If you do go, make sure to pit stop at the bathroom!  There's only one, it's gender neutral, and the pot, the sink, and such are all pretty average - but it's decorated with old window frames, which looks pretty cool.  Here's a panoramic for your viewing pleasure!  (I tried to keep pot's and such out of it, so it's a little wiggly, but free interweb high five to whoever can spot me!)

We capped off our evening with a stop off at our favorite watering hole, LOGAN'S ALLEY!  I managed to cross off two more beers from my list Around the World!  (I'll be sharing the whole shebang once I finally finish!)

And, I even got to see my sister for a few on Sunday!  She crept in late on Saturday night to sleep after her friend's birthday party! 

Hope you all had a great weekend too!!!  I want to read all about it, so make sure to link-up with Dateless in Dallas and Showered With Design for Weekend Recap!!