Thanksgiving in review

We had a lovely, 70-80 degree Thanksgiving weekend in Texas a few weeks ago. More and more, I see major differences in the weather we experience at the bottom of Texas versus the weather we had when we lived in Dallas. I don't remember it being so warm around this time of year. I don't mind it most of the time, but the last few days have finally dipped into the 30-40 degree weather I associate with December, and Max, J.R. and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, as most apparent in Max's "frisky" 10pm walk last night. I love these cravings for late night walks that we have entertained over the past week. It's a great opportunity to scout out the best Christmas light displays.

But, I digress, back to Thanksgiving. J.R.'s mom flew in to spend the week before and part of the week after the holiday with us. With her, she brought a huge can of apples and made three incredible pies that we munched on for days:

We had quite a meal for only three people, and ended up having leftovers for a full week.

 Bad pictures, but you can see one of our wreaths in this next one. We put them on all our forward facing windows this year and I think it looks really nice. I will get a picture of the front of the house sometime soon for the blog!

When Black Friday rolled around, we opted to avoid the hoards of mad, crazy shoppers and get out of town. We left the house by 10am and hit Galveston around 11:30, just in time to catch one of the dolphin tours we had missed out on during our last trip to the gulf. The first ten minutes of the boat ride were pretty exciting. The dolphins seemed to be putting on a show for us. They were so quick, it was hard to snap a picture in time to catch one, and this is the best I had:

I know, very picturesque with the oil rigs in back, right? Still it was completely worth the ride to see them so close to us. I imagine if they had something similar to a human personality, they would be some of the most fun and energetic people:)!

We also stopped by Trip Advisor's #5 must see in Galveston,
the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling and Rig Museum:

We had a great lunch with almond crusted Tilapia, and then went to explore
the seawall and snap a few pictures.

It was a beautiful day and well worth the trip!

On a side note, our next door neighbor asked me to take a few family photos for her on Thanksgiving morning. Turns out, it can be a rare occurrence to get three kids dressed up, hair brushed, etc. at the same time, and holidays seem to provide the motivation:). I don't know how you moms of three survive each day, but I have a great respect for you. It helps that from what I have seen of them, her children are very well behaved and so sweet (case in point--when we were returning from our early Thanksgiving morning walk, the oldest little girl, Claire opened up their door and in the tiniest voice, yelled out
"Happy Thanksgiving"--adorable)!

 Their son is definitely a mini version of his dad--too cute!