Thanksgiving

We were very fortunate and thankful to spend time with LOTS of family this Thanksgiving. We hosted Thanksgiving at our home for Greg's mom and two brothers, my parents, my brother, and my sister and brother in law.

Mom and I got up at 8am Thanksgiving morning, put in the turkey and went for a cold jog around Independence. I was able to truly appreciate how nice it is having your family visit your home and experience some of the things you do every day. The rest of the morning flew by as we showered, got ready, had a small snack, and guests began to arrive.

From top left to bottom right: Kyle, Greg, and Eric staying busy with the Wii. Mom and Dad helping me with dinner. Britt and I slaving away at the stove, the group enjoying our delicious meal! Below you can see how the Thanksgiving harvest decor turned out on our dinner table and serving table.

 

All in all, the first Thanksgiving at our place went quite well. We had a lot of fun having our families together and appreciated all the help!

Attempts at Festive Decorations

I am hosting Thanksgiving this year for a group of 10. I was a little nervous at first having never baked a turkey, no television for the guys to watch football, and limited chairs around our dinner table. I managed to deal with those stressors by creating some fun center pieces and decor for the special day. I used items I already had at home and was able to come up with a few cute things.

Already had the candle and added a bow and some dried leaves.

Leftover candle from our wedding that I added a couple bows to.

Bought some bulk beans from Winco and used a small glass and then holder from our unity candle set :)

 

top view

We'll see how it all comes together. My mom is staying the night with us tomorrow night and we'll attempt to start the turkey together. Hope to get in a Thanksgiving day jog around Independence, come back and get cleaned up and get ready for the family fun! I'll be sure to post pics of the food, decor, and guests later on.

Money, Money, Money

In attempts to save money Greg and I have been really tightening our budget. Here are a few things we've implemented:
1: Eating out only once a week
2: Plugging in tv, game systems, etc. into a power strip that we turn off while out of the house.
3: No heat until November 1st
4: Bye bye tv $20 a month, hello Netflix $8.99 a month

Eating out only once a week was tough at first, but now we set aside Sunday as our day. We normally meet friends after church, but if that doesn't happen then we grab takeout during the week or save the day for a week where we may "need" to eat out. Spent $70 between the two of us on eating out all month. The power strip started out as a struggle. Greg got annoyed when he would sit down on the couch and grab the remote and realize it wouldn't do him any good unless he got up to turn the power strip on. I was a little disappointed in our savings on our utility bill from using the power strip. It only saved us a little over $4. Not using heat has been tough the past couple of weeks. Greg and I have been in sweats, sweatshirts, slippers, while wrapped in a blanket when we hang out in the the evenings. Our power bill is below $45 a month though so I think it made a difference. We turned the heat on first thing this morning though, and it feels sooooo good! Last week we made the tough decision to cancel our tv package all together. We were only getting 13 channels or so (the basic of the basic) but felt as though we don't even need the 13 channels. After a day of no tv we broke down and got Netflix! It's actually been nice. We are more conscious about the shows/movies we watch and I am more likely to leave the tv off and spend time on more productive things. Only downside is that we can't watch the news anymore, we think we'll need to invest in the Sunday Oregonian. Upside, coupons!