Loved the Turkey! Let's Do It Again Next Year!

This year was a year of firsts for Ryan and me, being that we are newlyweds, but I have to say this was our first real Thanksgiving as husband and wife and it was AMAZING! Ryan decided he wanted to cook the entire meal for me and my parents and it was the best food I have ever had. Not that my family can't cook, but Ryan is really the best cook I know. He made Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Rolls, Cranberry Sauce and Gravy. All homemade and all so, so good! We spent all of Thanksgiving Day cooking and eating and then the day after Thanksgiving we went to the Eisman Center to see the Nutcracker ballet. This was the very best Thanksgiving I could have ever asked for. I can't wait to do it all again next year!

Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend marked Ryan and my's one year anniversary. We had a great weekend planned of fun and relaxation. It started with heading to stay at the hotel where we spent our first night as husband and wife, the Hilton Southlake. After getting ready at the hotel, we headed out to dinner at Tower Club Dallas, located in Downtown Dallas in Thanksgiving Tower. We had an amazing seven course meal, complete with drinks. Baked dates, cheese and chive popovers and bread and lavash for both of us. Ryan then had beef Carpaccio, clam chowder and halibut. I had a crab cake, salad and beef tenderloin. We then shared creme brulee and berries with champagne. Needless to say we were too stuffed to have our wedding cake that night or to share the bottle of Dom Perignon we had brought. We had our wedding cake top layer the next morning, but we will save the Dom for another special occasion. The next day we went to see the newly released Harry Potter movie at the Harkins Theatre. We had a really great time celebrating together. Here's to year two!

Austin Down to Kerrville

This past weekend Ryan, Ryan's sister Laurel and I all piled in the car and headed for Austin. We decided to stay in Austin, two hours away from Kerrville and then drive in on Monday morning for the funeral. The main reason we wanted to stay in Austin is so that we could stay at Barton Creek, a ClubCorp property. When we got to the resort, only one room was ready, so Ryan and I decided to go look around the resort. We ended up finding a large chessboard and decided to play. Ryan won, of course, but it was a lot of fun!


After going back up to our room, the sun was just setting, so Ryan and I pulled up a chair to watch. It was so nice to be able to see for miles, unlike when we're in the city.


Another great part about staying in Austin was that we got to visit our friends Mike and Amanda. I can't even begin to describe how great it was to see them. We didn't get the chance to hang out with them much when they were living in Dallas, but now that we can't just pop over and see them, I miss them! We went to County Line for dinner, which was some great BBQ and a lot of fun!

The next day we went to Ryan's Grandmother's funeral and got to see a lot of his family. We also got the chance to have lunch with most of them and catch up. It was nice to have everyone in the same room since the last time we saw most everyone was at our wedding almost a year ago.


We didn't want to take more than one day off of work, so as soon as lunch with the family was over, we decided to head back to Dallas. Along the way we stopped at the infamous Czech Stop for some Kolaches. As you can see below, they were AMAZING!


Although it was sad to have to go to a funeral, we did have a good trip down to Austin, to Kerrville and back.

Goodbye...

So we found out last weekend that Ryan's grandmother passed away. Although they may not have been very close as she has been fairly ill for awhile, it is always hard to lose someone in your family. Like he said, there would be no me without her.

So, we leave on Sunday to head down to Kerrville for her funeral. It will be a fairly small ceremony followed by a family lunch. I am just glad that I can be a support, even if a small one, at this time in Ryan's life.

Happy Ratterween!

I love our girls!