Thanksgiving Happenings

Thanksgiving weekend went by in a flash like always.

We headed to Toledo to Brian's grandpa's on Wednesday afternoon. We left at 1:00 pm and drove the 512 miles in 9 and a half hours. We had about an hours worth of stops in this trip. I took an apple pie with us, having an excuse to finally use my new pie carrier. We then got a really good nights sleep there.

On Thursday, we had lunch with all the Eddies (except Brian's dad who wasn't feeling well). We then drove the couple of hours to my great uncle Dave's house and had dinner with most of the Banters. My sisters then dragged me to see a late showing of New Moon. I made them wait a whole week since its opening, and Erin couldn't stand to wait anymore. Brian and I spent the night at my Banter grandparents this night.

Grandpa woke us up with good smells of pancakes and a roaring fire on Friday morning. I then did a little bit of Black Friday shopping with my grandma, mother, and sister. And shared an awesome Butterfinger milk shake with Erin. I'd never really had a milk shake before, and this one definitely made me get ideas for my new blending obsession. I got to hit up East of Chicago later that evening with Mariah and Ashley. We really could just talk for days and never be totally caught up with each other. Too bad we can't see each other more. Brian avoided these girly activities by spending time with his siblings, and watching a new toilet get installed. It was his parents birthday gift. Cori enjoyed playing with her cousins. I absolutely love this picture that I stole from Emily... Cori looks like she is such a good girl. We spent this night at my parent's house. Saturday put us back in the car driving to Uncle Charlie and Aunt Marrianne's. We made pretty good time, and enjoyed the Hutson Thanksgiving there at noon. There were at least half a dozen kids under 2 there... the Hutson family has been exploding with kids lately. Our boy will have plenty of older second cousins to play with, most of them boys. Being the dork that I am, I decided to graph this population growth. This chart shows the growth (through marriages and births) since I started dating Brian nine years ago. We got a couple of our first official baby gifts here, including this beautiful quilt from Brian's godmother.
This is a graph of the family since I started dating Brian in 2000. I'm one of the data from 2006.We then had to leave early to head to Fort Wayne for my cousin's wedding. The wedding was held at a Lutheran church in Fort Wayne, and the reception at the Hayloft in Hoagland. I really liked this venue, and we had a really good time at the wedding. The dj did a good job of getting us all dancing and having fun. Everything was really nice and pretty. I was dead on my feet by the end of it. We headed back to Huntington and spent the night at Brian's house.



Sunday we awoke to the smell of pancakes again. Brian's dad sent us off with a breakfast of these and some maple syrup to go. We later realized we should have been cooking for him, considering it was his and Brian's mom's birthday! After a stop to fill our cooler with meat, we headed back to Newark. We left at 10:08 am, drove the 615 miles through the day, and got to Newark at 10:28 pm. The worst traffic was where the Pennsylvania turnpike runs along with 70. We made a total of six stops that took about an hour and a half altogether (including lunch at Steak & Shake).

And after a very tiring work day on Monday, we vowed to never get back within 10 hours of having to be at work.