Thankful

Today I'm thankful for a wonderful holiday. I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!

I had a great time celebrating the holiday with both of my families...my family that has raised me and loved me so well for 28 years and my newer, loving in-law family. We are so fortunate to have both families close by, so we rarely, if ever, go a holiday without seeing both. My wish came true and we have finally received some cooler weather to celebrate the holiday. On Thursday, we participated in the Turkey Trot with my family. This is a fun tradition that puts us in a great mood for Thanksgiving and makes me feel better about eating too much:). Then, we headed out to B's aunt and uncle's ranch. I had no idea what I was in for...what a beautiful place!

Before I share pictures, I must say MERRY CHRISTMAS to me and B...we got a nice camera...finally! Maybe you all can actually enjoy my pictures now. I know it's not Christmas yet, but this will give us time to learn more about it before our big trip. Plus, B and I can never wait until Christmas to open our gifts...we are so impatient :). Here is our first picture with our new fancy camera featuring me and miss Penny Lane.

 Ok, back to Thanksgiving and the gorgeous ranch. This ranch is about an hour or so out of Austin and with a wide-open landscape, beautiful trees, indoor/outdoor living, an infinity pool, etc...it feels like a sanctuary. It's beautifully designed and offers a very home-y, comfortable living space. The doors at the back of the house are floor to ceiling glass and they open all the way. So, the outside is truly part of the inside and vice versa. Besides the doors, the light fixtures were my favorite. They were everywhere, they were rustic, and they were gorgeous!

It was the perfect landscape to play around with our new camera. Forgive me for some of the not-so-good pictures...I'm learning. B has a big family and close to everyone was there to enjoy the beautiful setting. Kids were 4-wheeling around the property, ladies were cooking delicious food, and the grown-ups that didn't cook (me included) headed out to the skeet shoot range. Yes, we spent some time shooting skeet on Thanksgiving. This was a first for me and I missed every shot :). Not my forte....

When it came time to eat, there were tables inside and many outside with beautiful fall centerpieces. The food was so good! Then, we all grabbed dessert and gathered around the TV to watch the Texas vs. A&M game...a long standing tradition that is possibly coming to an end with A&M heading to the SEC. What a great game to end the tradition, at least for the Texas Longhorns. It came down to a field goal and Texas pulled it off! This was the icing on the cake for a wonderful turkey day!

With full tummies, we headed to my parents house to stay the night. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving day filled with good people, good food and good football. Friday was spent with my family at a winery and I'll share the details of our 2nd Thanksgiving day with you soon.