Giving Thanks... all week long

We all know that the Thanksgiving should not just be a one day celebration, it should be a constant state of mind. Well, in light of that, we extended it to an entire week.

Thursday morning began with the Youth Group sponsored pancake breakfast and worship service. Bobby has a copy of the liturgy on his blog. We had a wonderful turnout, close to 50 people I think. We all had a great time and were very encouraged by the support of our church. Of course there were lots of grumbles due to the early starting time (everyone was there to start cooking at 6:30!) but after we brought out the Rockstars, everyone was good spirits. It was a fun time of working together, serving the church and community, and reflecting on all we have to be thankful for. "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever."

Thursday evening we went out to dinner at the Century Inn with friends and family. Such notable guests of the Inn include LaFayette and Andrew Jackson. I had a delicious turkey dinner and Bobby had salmon.

Then it was off to bed early to get up early for Black Friday shopping. My mom was disappointed that I wasn't willing to get up at 3 or 4, 5:15 was the earliest that these eyes open up. We didn't get some of the fantastic deals we were hoping for, but we did get a good start on shopping.

Then the big day finally came, Saturday, the day we have our big family dinner. As usual, it was quite a feast and a wonderful time of visiting with family and friends. We had 16 in attendance. (not at our cabin, but over at my aunt and uncle's big house in the dining room designed for Thanksgiving dinner)



Sunday is the day when the hunters begin arriving for the first day of buck, Monday - a state holiday in Pennsylvania.

I originally thought Monday was just Bobby's big day (hunting) but since he didn't get anything, it was unfortunately a disappointment for him. But not for me. I got invited to go to the Steelers Monday night football game! It was a lousy game and the weather was miserable. But we were sitting in the club level, so we stayed warm & dry. That's definately the way to go. (If you can afford the tickets.)

Birthday

Last weekend (the weekend before my birthday), my family had a surprise party for me here at the farm. This past weekend, Bobby and I went to Pittsburgh. We did a little shopping downtown Saturday afternoon, then drove through some not-so-good neighborhoods to find Trader Joe's where I stocked up on a few bags of my favorite pretzel thins, had dinner at Church Brew Works - cool place!. I had a nice Pittsburgh-style salad (which means there were fries on it) and Bobby ate chicken & crawfish etoufee.





































We then drove to the North Hills to go to Target to get Bobby a Troy Polamalu jersey, and then ended up at the condo downtown to sleep. Sunday morning we woke up early and walked all the way over to Station Square to have the world famous brunch at the Grand Concourse. It was amazing. A few items on the brunch include: prime rib, smoked salmon, shrimp, homemade donuts, made-to-order omelets, Belgian waffles, and bananas foster! Then we hopped on the Gateway Clipper boat to be shuttled over to Heinz Field for the Steelers game.

The boat was full of black & gold.



















Stiller fans unloading.




















We took a gamble here and lost unfortunately. We didn't have any tickets and were planning on getting them from scalpers. What we weren't prepared for were the outrageous prices they were asking. We had what we thought was a lot of cash on us (mostly birthday money) but it turned out that we barely had enough for ONE ticket!! They were asking over 4 times the face-value price of the tickets. And we just couldn't do it... Even if we had that much cash on us, we couldn't spend it all on tickets. Even though I really wanted to go to that game. It was Browns vs Steelers! One of the greatest football rivalries ever. And we were right there, standing outside the stadium. So, sadly we had to walk back to the condo and watch the game on tv, while we could see Heinz Field out the window. It was painful, but we still enjoyed it. Whew, it was a close one! But fortunately the Steelers pulled it out at the end and won a good one for me.

This is where I wanted to be!




















But... rather than watching it from inside the stadium (in the rain) we saw it from this comfy couch.



















We left the city as soon as the game was over and got back in time for youth group. Where they had a little birthday cake for me and sang happy birthday.