turkey day without the turkey

wednesday i got off work early and went home to do laundry to prep for our trip. emily and her kids along with evan and karley came over for dinner. (little did we know that'd be the last time we'd see karley pregnant!) and we hung out with brett's mom, jp, and his girlfriend lindsey for the rest of the night.

thursday we got up early to turkey trot and turkey bowl it up! kendal and i did the 10k this year. i'm so glad she did it with me! it was a lot more fun to be with a buddy than to be all alone!

afterwards we went to my parents' house for late thanksgiving lunch. our turkey-less and mostly oil free thanksgiving did not disappoint. my parents went all out catering to our needs. instead of casseroles there were baked/steamed veggies galore. the only things we couldn't have were the turkey, rolls, the mac n cheese, and the desserts (but we skipped town at dessert time).
we had...
holiday salad with cranberry apple orange vinaigrette (recipe from oh she glows. so good! i love fruit in salad. i added carrots, tomatoes, and red bell pepper too. next time i'm not going to toast the walnuts. it made my house smell great, but the flavor was just too strong in the salad.)
mashed potatoes (he ran them through a potato ricer since they wouldn't be creamy without any dairy in them anyway)
sweet potatoes
squash (3 different types)
broccoli
green beans
stuffing (he uses apple juice instead of broth)
emily's homemade apple sauce
black beans & rice (just for good measure)
aka -- a whole lot of carbs :)

we headed to jax next, this was the first time i've ever been with bill and katie for thanksgiving. pretty crazy.

we did the usual. hung out at the house. played with the kids. played loaded questions (lots of fun with beach grandma). hung out with stephen and natalie. brett helped bill with some manual labor. we hit up the st. augustine outlet mall on black friday.

katie took me to the downtown library on saturday to pick out christmas books for the kids. downtown looked so cool and the library was awesome. it really helps katie's sale's pitch to get us to live in jax (minus the homeless people and trannies that were hanging around).

that's about half of the christmas books we hoarded from the library. i had a great time reading them with emme. we didn't make it through too many of them though because she likes to reread her favorites. over and over and over....

we took the kids out for frozen yogurt on saturday and showed off our team spirit. (my first froyo experience since we've gone veg. frozen yogurt is not as exciting when you're limited to one sorbet flavor and nuts for your only topping.)

love them. they're tiring, but they're fun. an elf on the shelf appeared during emme's nap on friday and it sure is a great trick to get her to behave. will's walking nowadays and it's the funniest little thing, it looks like he's walking too fast for his little body and that he's about to tip over.

after we left jax on sunday we headed for the hospital to see the newest addition to our long list of nieces and nephews! baby brennan surprised us all and came on the 26th!

such a little cutie. i can't believe evan and karley are parents now! and that he was hanging out in her belly just the other day! karley looked amazing and evan was definitely one proud papa.

toesies shot, as usual (like here and here). i won't have trouble remembering what day his birthday is. the 26th is a pretty alright birthday if i do say so myself.

we got home and i couldn't help but put off house cleaning and homework to get the christmas decorations up. here we are hanging our first ornaments. brett always picks the same one. :) we look so different from our first married christmas together, i can't believe this is our fourth!

so excited for the holiday season! i've been listening to christmas music nonstop since sunday! and i say this every year, but this year i am seriously going to find us a star for our tree in the after christmas sales!