Day of Thanks

Aaah Thanksgiving. The one day you can stuff your face the entire day and not feel bad about it. You spend upwards of 10 hours cooking for all of your creations to be demolished in less than an hour. It’s a day to spend with family, giving thanks for all of the wonderful joys God has blessed you with.

This wonderful day has rendered me completely pooped… and it’s nowhere near finished. In a few hours, we will be dragging our tired selves out to stores teaming with hundreds of deal-hungry people. This masochistic expedition is otherwise known as BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING! Hopefully I will live to tell the tale…

As you know, my posts are usually about the day before, but today is different. Today is a day unlike any other. Today, my body has requested several times that I simply lie on the floor and pass out, but I have not given in. Instead, I got in an early morning workout and have cooked since 9:00 AM.

I technically had two Thanksgiving holidays since I cooked a meal for my boss yesterday as well. Since I knew that I would be consuming an exorbitant amount of calorie-laden goodies, I had to work out, no questions asked. I had hoped to complete my running program on yesterday, but it just didn’t happen. I did run 30 minutes, just not consecutive minutes.I figured, I burn the same amount of calories either way, so who cares. It was hard work. Evidence:

Exhibit 1: This should be my profile pic.

Exhibit 2: Exhausted dog.

 I woke up this morning sore from yesterday, but I knew I would have to sacrifice my comfort so that I can enjoy my meal without guilt. My running for today was as follows:

For 25 minutes, alternate walking 5 min, running 5 min. For the next 20 minutes, alternate walking 1 min and running 1 min. This sounds a little haphazard, BUT running like this made me work a lot harder than if I were to just run 20 minutes straight. I had to give myself a pat on the back. J

After my run, my mom and I got right to cooking. It was a blast. I am fairly certain that I could cook every day of my life, all day, and be totally ok with it. I love it. At around 3, half of the clan arrived. The rest rolled in at about 6, and the feast commenced at 7.   

Some preparing, some watching those preparing.

Mother/Daughter Cuteness

The boys... and M.

For some reason, my aunt brought these crazy fake eye lashes.

Saying grace.

Food.

More food...

Random arm wrestling.

My dinner. Only one plate!

Adult table. We are segregated.

Dessert bowl. O.M.G.

Thanksgiving is a day for family. Often times, I find myself getting annoyed with them, being stressed out by them, and sometimes having thoughts of maiming or seriously injuring them. But today as I sat down to eat my delicious meal, I had to sit back and evaluate everything that was before me. Today I realized that I have a loving family (however dysfunctional they may be), good food, a beautiful house, a wonderful life, a gorgeous fiancé (although he is 8,000 miles away), and great memories. Today, I am so, so incredibly thankful for everything I have.