i made it out alive

I made it through our first Thanksgiving weekend (as newlyweds) and I'm here to tell the tale!

Thanksgiving was great..it was the typical "let's go see my family then we'll go see your family" and we had the pop dukes (in law) in tow for the journey. I brought the baked brie (from my last post) to Aunt #1's house where we were having dinner. At the last minute I started doubting the deliciousness of the recipe since I've never made it before but, woah...did it turn out good, so good that it was already almost gone by the time I went to go take a picture of it. The crust was super buttery (YUM) but I did end up using more than what was called for in the original recipe. After dinner, it was off to Aunt #2's house for our 2nd dessert..ugh! Luckily, there were lots of pictures from the wedding to be seen to distract me from the food coma I put myself in. It was great to see both family's since it was the first time that we've seen most of them since the wedding but the night had to end and then it was onto our next challenge...BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!

We grabbed two of my cousins and off we went for some overnight shopping. All in all, I wasn't as impressed as I have been in previous years. I didn't question why most of the merchandise was on sale for such low prices...it looked it. Being a borderline shopaholic, I was shocked I only walked away from our excursion with an outfit for each of my parents and a sweatshirt for myself (after shopping from 11:30 p.m to 6 a.m). Round 2 of shopping started at 2 p.m on Saturday after the lovely hubster thought it was a great idea to wake me up at noon- remind me to thank him later. I had better luck the 2nd time out. NY&Co. had 50% off everything and I went bonkers. 2 cardi's, 2 tank's, jeans, coat, scarf, & a hat later I was done. I completed the one mission I had for the weekend and bought a tv for my parents' Christmas gift. They helped out SO much these past few years with the wedding & now that I can afford it...they totally deserve it. Day 3 of our shopping extravaganza consisted of a German Christmas fair. We all shopped around for all sorts of homemade Christmas goodies will sipping on some mulled wine. I walked away with some beautiful hand painted ornaments, a bunch of decorations, cranberry walnut bread, and a stomach full of bratwurst. Successful day if you ask me.

So what's there to do now that the weekends done? I'm kicking Christmas into high gear! I have to decorate the whole apartment and I have intentions of making the most adorable ornaments ever for our 1st Christmas tree (stay tuned). Also, I plan on giving a diet a real shot because lord knows I need it! After the weeks leading up to the wedding (and grabbing whatever was easiest when I finally got hungry enough), then the wedding, then the honeymoon (where most of the damage was done), and the grand finale of Thanksgiving something needs to be done NOW! Unfortunately, waiting another month until after Christmas will result in packing on another 10-15 lbs. I have to do this, I need to be the cute, (somewhat) thin wifey I wanna be. Let's see how well I do getting through this holiday season...