The Houston House: Our Thanksgiving

Last week I got up our Thanksgiving wreath on the door, only to take it down yesterday. Thought that counts?

I also got to enjoy Thanksgiving feast at E's school! I'm so thankful for a job that has super flexible hours. I couldn't have ever done this if I were still practicing law 60 plus hours a week.

Evans' teacher made all the kids costumes to wear. Adorable! All the parents were asked to bring side dishes or desserts. The food was actually really good, and of course Evans had to have seconds.

They sang a few Thanksgiving songs for the parents. Evans was more interested in Mommy being at school and wouldn't let me leave her side for the performance. So me and my big pregnant self got to stand in front of an audience while they performed. Oh joy. That's us to the back left...

E with her school mates Hunter and Ellie. So stinking cute!

On Thanksgiving, we always head to Bluffton to my aunt and uncle's house. It's the perfect place to gather our family. With all my first cousins having babies, we just keep multiplying. Not everyone was in attendance this year (spending Thanksgiving with spouse's families, sick, etc), but it was still so much fun. The kids all play so well together. My uncle's house has loads of entertainment for them- tire swing, play ground, Noah's ark, corn hole game court, etc. Evans was exhausted by the time we left for home. She had no nap that day and fell asleep on our way out the driveway to head back to Isle of Hope.

The annual cousin picture! Sadly this was taken after we had already left that evening. Evans was in meltdown mode, eek!

Uncle Jim took the kids for hayrides throughout the day. They had a blast!

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday. Best day of the year!

On Friday we headed out on our "babymoon". We decided to do a staycation since we live in Savannah and there's plenty to do here.

Evans stayed in Bluffton with my parents and had a big ol' time.

We stayed at the Hilton downtown. Our view from the room was gorgeous.

It was so nice to be just Mark & Ashley for a weekend. I felt like we got to catch up with each other, as crazy as that may sound. I'm sure parents understand though. When you are home with your kids, everything is about the kids and you really don't have time to yourselves.

I didn't really take many pictures over the weekend. Having too much fun I guess!

Friday we ate lunch at Tequila's Town (which I'm totally pumped to be getting one by our house in January!!). I highly recommend it. Upscale Mexican food with table side guacamole? I'm in! After lunch we just walked around Broughton Street, did some shopping, and strolled through City Market.

That night we were still pretty full from a big lunch, so we decided to just get something small from Wild Wings.

Broughton St. lights @visitsavannah

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast at Collins Quarter and then I had a spa day scheduled!

Gift from my sweet husband for my birthday this year was a prenatal massage, pedicure, and tea time at Spa Bleu. It was amazing! My back gets so messed up during pregnancy and the therapist went to town on me. I felt like a new woman afterwards!

Saturday was more shopping and people watching, and we grabbed pizza at Vinnie's (best pizza in Savannah). We watched the Carolina/Clemson game and then went to The Grey. If you haven't been to The Grey yet, GO. We sat at the bar since we didn't have reservations, but it was fun talking to the bartenders and learning more about the restaurant. We decided to get several of the "middles" which was sort of a tapas sized amount of food. That way we got to try several menu items. Country pasta, seafood boudin, sizzling smoky pig, and the smoked collards made their way to our table. My favorite was the smoky pig and the collards, but everything was amazing. The bartender also made me the best mocktail I've ever had. We'll definitely be heading back!

After stuffing ourselves, we strolled around town a bit and saw the boat parade of lights on River Street. It's a fun Savannah tradition and got me in the spirit.