Thanksgiving Festivities

I thought I'd better post about our Thanksgiving fun before everything Christmas takes over.

I don't have any paid time off yet at my new job, so we had Thanksgiving in Dallas this year. My parents visited us the weekend before Thanksgiving since we wouldn't be able to travel to Utah for the holiday. We had a blast!
On Friday, we walked on the Katy Trail, had lunch at our favorite little Mexican place in Lakewood (Zuzu's - get the fish tacos), and did some Christmas shopping. We went to an awesome toy store on Knox called Froggies 5&10. I think we (4 adults) spent an hour there - they had SO MUCH cool stuff. We saw the Brad Pitt movie, Money Ball that afternoon and hit lower Greenville for some delicious sushi at the hip Blue Fish that night.
On Saturday morning we went to the Dallas Arboretum. It's really beautiful right now because the leaves are still changing. We did a little more shopping, had dinner at a place we'd been wanting to try on Henderson, and went to the tree/lights lighting at City Park downtown and to the Neiman Marcus window displays that night. Neiman marcus has this tubing (like at the McDonald's playplace) that runs through their window displays that kids can go through while their parents watch and follow them from outside. It was actually pretty fun watching the kids, and watching the parents watch their kids.

The Arboretum

The City Park/Neiman Marcus festival. I'm such a good photographer with my iPhone ;)

On Sunday we made Thanksgiving dinner. We didn't do a big turkey - we stuffed turkey tenderloins with traditional stuffing and baked them. It was really delicious. We also had a few of our favorite sides - sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, and pumpkin pie. We made a couple of things from scratch, and Central Market and Walmart helped out with the rest. It still seemed like a lot of work, but it was incredibly delicious and worth every minute. The weekend was probably too much fun and I was so glad my parents could come visit us.

On Thanksgiving day, Jesse and I had dinner with our friends, Mat and Jenny. I had to work, so Jenny did the bird, gravy, and stuffing. And Mat made TWO pies for four people :). Jesse and I did the sides, most of which were easy to make ahead of time. It turned out to be a really beautiful meal.

My family has a tradition of making graham cracker gingerbread houses the weekend after Thanksgiving at my Grandma and Grandpa Moore's. When my parents were in town they bought Jesse and I a kit, so on Friday night, we put together this beauty.

This is what Jesse did with the leftover frosting.

I love Thanksgiving! I love the food, traditions, being with family, and not thinking about calories (which is a feat for a dietitian). I also love being reminded of all of the things in my life that I have to be thankful for - a good job, good health, the gospel, family, friends, and Jesse are just to name a few.

Happy Thanksgiving!