Love, Life, & Games of Chelsea & James: November, Thanksgiving, December 2014

November 7

We ate Town Spa pizza, courtesy of Holly Flynne visiting Nana & Gramps! She ordered 10 pizzas to be shipped all the way from Massachusetts, just for our enjoyment. Let the gratitude this month begin!

November 8

James and I went on a date! First we got frozen yogurt at Purple Kiwi.

Then all of a sudden, with 5 mins to spare, we went to go see the movie Interstellar because our best friends told us we'd like it. We had no idea what it was about.

We absolutely loved it! We had no clue it was 3 hours long though, so we were starving when the movie got out!

We went to Barnes & Noble for some water (I had a pounding headache from lack of water and the intensity of the music in the movie), and while we were there we looked through the I Spy Christmas book and spied every item in the book! We even spied an antique that Nana told us all about just days before! How random!

Then we went to a family owned restaurant called Cheezies.

Gourmet grilled cheese & macaroni-n-cheese? Yes ~~cheese~~ please!

November 10

Nana took Piper and I on a Christmas shopping trip to the mall. We spent an hour in Macy's picking out a gift for James. We browsed some other shops then had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory! Look how gorgeous my nana is!

November 11

Happy Veteran's Day, and Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet Nana!

She is so elegant. I just love her.

November 12

My good friend Kate came to town! Her hubby Adam was doing a rotation in the area so she and I had lunch in downtown McKinney at Spoon's Cafe. Her boys Eli & Golden are so cute!

November 15

Chandler completed his Eagle Project! So proud of him! He built a storage rack to house horsing equipment at ManeGate, where Piper does her therapy. It turned out awesome, I'm so proud of him! Here's the completed project and some pictures of James with the horses!

After the project the family went out to dinner to celebrate at Cheddar's!

Piper really wanted dessert, so she got a chocolate cake as big as her face!

November 19

Now it's time to celebrate Pi. I went to her Young Women in Excellence night. She completed her Personal Progress a few years ago, but as Mia Maids President she gave a talk. She did amazing! I'm so proud of her!

November 20

Ok now celebrating Chandler again. Happy 18th Birthday Chan!

Had to post this hilarious picture. Piper was so clever with this black gift bag. Paxton's dog hair gets everywhere, so she decorated the bag with his white fur and tape! Love her creativity haha.

November 22

After a yummy dinner at Whiskey Cake, we saw MockingJay Part 1 with our good friends Breck and Brielle! Brielle & I are striking bow & arrow poses haha.

November 25

Peter's here for Thanksgiving! Yay!!! We went out to dinner at Chili's as a family. Dad's face got warped in the pano photo, but we think it's pretty cool!

My cute brothers.

November 27-Thanksgiving Day

We spent the morning getting ready for family pictures & taking them ourselves. It only took us about 10 minutes to take pictures which was perfect because it was really cold & windy! Look for the photos on my December 25th blog post!

Then we went over to Nana & Gramps' house for the Thanksgiving feast. Gorgeous table setting as usual.

Setting the table

Prepping the dishes

Family photo with Mom

Family photo with Dad

I love Nana & Gramps' gorgeous tree in their front yard.

The food was incredible, as always. Oh and Nana & Gramps' homemade apple pie is the one pie I will eat.

The dessert table: pies, turnovers, and cookies.

Chan, Pete, and Gramps

Washing dishes with Gramps

So glad Pete was here.

I love talking with Nans & Gramps

Paxy loves it too!

November 28

Had to visit our favorite donut shop owned by the nice Korean people. James spoke Korean to the lady again and she was thrilled. I think we made her day. And she made ours with all the donuts & kolaches!

November 29

James helped Dad put up the Christmas lights on the house to surprise Mom!

November 30

We broke out the Christmas decor to get ready to deck the halls on Dec 1. Pax was pretty excited.

December 1

Perfect Sunday getting the house ready for Christmas.

Don't worry, we got James a stocking and hung it a few days later.

December 4

James helped Nana & Grandpa set up their antique show! He really enjoyed himself and loved getting to know more about antiques from my grandparents the antique experts!

December 7

We made these amazing Molasses cookies! Thought I would share the recipe!

December 9

James visited the football hall of fame while he was in Ohio for interviews.

December 10

Paxy and I anxiously waited for James to come home and be done with interviews!!!

December 12

He's home! He's finally done with residency interviews. He was offered 26 interviews but he narrowed down his favorites and completed 18 interviews in 8 different states. We are so happy he's done with interviews! Now waiting for February to come when we find out which program he will "match" at and where we will be going for the next four residency years!

December 13

We went to Grand Prairie for a wedding reception, but first we ate dinner as a family at Chili's.

Who's wedding reception was it? Our good friend Blake Wassom's! Our family has been friends with the Wassoms for years. In fact, Blake was my very first friend when we first moved to Texas in 2001!

Congrats Blake & Francesca!

December 14

I made gingerbread chocolate chip cookies and we took a walk around the neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights!

December 18

I helped Piper make an ugly Christmas sweater for her friend's party. It turned out pretty cute, I mean, "ugly."

December 19

My very last day working at Chase ever! After 3 years, 3 months, and 17 days of working as a teller at Chase bank, I decided to resign and use my time in January-April of 2015 to finish my degree in marriage & family studies. 17 credits and graduation here I come!