Thanksgiving 2019

Again this year I went to my sister house in Harrisburg for Thanksgiving! As always, the entire family came with the exception of two people...

My brother was in Japan for work (his wife still came though and brought the kids)
and my niece Jessica was in Texas (her boyfriend was to be deployed to Poland on Dec 9th and they wanted to spend time together before he left). Now, after the fact, we have also learned that they had decided to be married at the Justice of the Peace and no one knew. So, there is that...as long as she is happy - I am happy!

So, as you can imagine - minus only two - it was an awesome time spent with family, counting our blessings and doing the ritual two days of Christmas cookie baking!

This is a very picture heavy post so get prepared...LOL!!!

This is our first Thanksgiving dinner at my sisters house. This is her husbands family on Thanksgiving day.

 

We had our side of the families Thanksgiving the day after Thanksgiving. I made everyone a turkey as a place setting marker with their initials. I saw the idea from an old friend of mines Facebook! Super cute, right?!?!

 
The morning after Thanksgiving. my sister had a Pop Up in Athleta for Barre. She is opening a Barre studio in Harrisburg if you are interested!!!

 

 
And then the baking fun begins...here is shift one...both of my sisters, my mom and dad and my little sisters kids...

 
Here are the aprons we wear- they have been going strong for many years now!!!

 
Action shots...we have two ovens going and three mixers at a time...

 
It was great to have my sisters kids help this year! Usually they unwrap candy for us but this year they were a huge help and did EVERYTHING!

 
More action shots...that tablecloth on the floor helps a tiny bit with spills, LOL!

 
 Ball rolling...

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
These older kids got up a little later than any of us - they are in college so they can really sleep!!! This is my nephew Matthew and his girlfriend Lidia. Once they ate breakfast; they joined in a little too.

 
 Sister Susan cutting cherries...

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
We recruited these cuties as soon as they arrived on Friday!!!

 

 

 

 

 
Gross but a necessary step...ball rolling...

 

 

 
This is my sisters husband...as you can see he is not into Cookie baking with us....LOL!

 

 
So this is the finished table! In the end ...this year we made 195 dozen, 19 varieties for a total of 2342 cookies!

 
The kids started a game and wanted to finish later in the night but this wonderful kitty Max (my niece Jessica's cat) had other plans! LOL!!!!

 
Here is my cookie storage at home! I do not have room in my refrigerator for my share of the cookies so they are in a tub outside on my patio! Thank goodness I am on the second floor...do not want to attract bears!!!

 
Love this picture!!! Everyone was ready for a chill night after cookie baking was completed!

I truly hope you all had a Thanksgiving as blessed as mine! HUGS!

Will you please share with me your Thanksgiving memories from this year!!??!?!?!

Weekend Palooza

Happy new week everyone! I hope everyone is doing well after the weekend...

WOW! What a weekend I had!

I volunteered to run gear check at the Pittsburgh Marathon since I am not allowed to run anymore.  It was an amazing experience and it felt so good to get to give back to the Marathon that I have loved for so may years!

Here is my vest and radio!!! HA!

Friday night I was invited (I won the invite at a work raffle) to a VIP dinner for the Pittsburgh Marathon.

It was held at the Westin William Penn hotel and it was phenomenal.  They had amazing food stations everywhere...here is what I selected to eat...

Tri-colored pasta with veggies...




and, of course (it was in Pittsburgh), cheese pierogies with bacon and mushrooms!!! YUM!




This amazing woman, Patrice Matamoros, re-invested and ran this marathon for the past 11 years!! She is incredible. She has decided to move on to other thinks so this will be her last marathon to coordinate. There was a surprise celebration for her during the dinner as well!! You can read all about her HERE! The mayor gave her her own DAY!!! So cool!


This is a frame with all the Marathon finisher medals since she took over in 2008!!!



And this is a quilt that they made her with a shirt from every year!! So awesome! Her team loves her sooo much! What a leader!



Yummy Bethel Bakery cookies were given out on our way out! YUM!



I had agreed to run gear check months ago before finding out that it was  my nephews First Communion that weekend. I rarely miss nieces and nephews events and I felt horrible but I had already committed so I could not bail. The rest of the family represented well I heard. Here is the sweet little man!!!




The sweet little man and his sweet family - this is my little brother's family...what a cutie in his suit!



Here are all the cousins together!!!! Such cuties~



This is my parents with the little cutie!!



Also, Saturday was this little (big now-HA!) guys birthday! He turned 20?!?!?!? What!?!?! Crazy how fast time goes! Happy birthday sweet nephew Matthew-I love you soooooo very much!



Here is my outfit for gear check - the quarter zip is so cute - I love it!


Vest and radio again...



Here is one of the many FedEx volunteers (15 to be exact) that dedicated their time all day and one of my three volunteers! I work with her and she did an amazing job too!!!  We got rained on all day (from 3AM to 3PM) but no one complained AT ALL!



Terri and I - she is a great person and so fun to hang out with!


It was a whirlwind weekend full of so much fun! Thank you so much P3R for allowing me to volunteer and give back! It was so rewarding! They are always looking for help and I am sure they are already planning for next years marathon - so, if you live near Pittsburgh and you want to help contact them HERE.

I enjoyed a few hours sleep and then ran off to the airport for a work trip.

I hope everyone has a phenomenal week - HUGS to every one of you!

Ever run a marathon? Ever run/walk a race? Do you do volunteer work? What did you do this weekend?