The City and The South

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. The Boyle's really took me in and made me feel at home.

This is us relaxing at Tina's sister Laura's house. This is where we'd spend the next day or two cooking, relaxing, and socializing. 5 minutes in and Benny's already become a traitor!

Laura had gotten a bottle of champagne to celebrate our engagement. This was the first time we'd seen Tina's family since then.

Tina stuffing the bird on Thanksgiving morning. Along with a few other "nevers" in this post I'd never had actual stuffed turkey before. We don't do it like that in the South :)

My contribution - Iuliucci Mac & Cheese

Tina's bird before and after...

With three different traditions of three different families the stuffing war commenced. Had to have all three represented. (I liked all three but nothing beats southern dressing ha!)

Another "never" - cheese dumplings fried in turkey grease. Da bomb!!!

I'm posting this because up until now I'd never seen the two so close together. When I was really young we went to Morrison's cafeteria and I was convinced that the beats were cranberry sauce even though Mama tried to tell me different. I'll never forget biting into those beats and I don't think I've had one since. To my 4 year old credit I'd like to point out their similarities here (sans onions of course).

The calm...

Mike's family came over for dessert.

Granny making soup with the leftover turkey.

Benny and I continuing the tradition of napping directly after eating.

On our way out of town to save money we got our Christmas tree at Home Depot upstate. Tree made it in tact all the way from upstate New York. Thanks to Bobby (Tina's dad) for the suggestion on buying the straps.

Tree in place. And we celebrated out first Christmas tree with one of the many bottles of champagne we received for our engagement.

Decorating (gotta get the backside too!).

This is us in the city before making the trip down to Georgia.

Spending time with family for us means playing games.

Cousins... Walt and family invited us over so the kids could act out the Christmas story. Had so much fun feeling the youngster's anticipation before Santa would come.