giving thanks.

thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. normally, I spend it with the Austin side of my family. we celebrate Christmas early. we play board games and we drink, we laugh and tell stories, we eat snack foods and terrorize whatever hotel is putting up with us this year.

I should clarify: we play board games the Austin way. we play dirty and mean. uber-competitive. things that should be fun and light-hearted become do or die. the uncles gang up on whatever cousin is whomping on them and start making jokes. the aunts try to one-up each other with stories of thier children's exploits. said children run amok until hours much too late, fueled by sugar and holiday cheer. eventually the game gets off track (usually due to an excess of liquor and laughter) and everyone attempts to claim victory.

I love it.

this year, however, I did not go home. I stayed in Jersey with Luke. and it actually turned out to be pretty fantastic. in a completely different way than usual, but still amazing. I baked. we cooked and ate. decorated our little tree. went black friday shopping. played video games. and just took time to enjoy being together. oh, and of course I took a ton of photos (if you couldn't tell from all the updates to the page). here are the highlights: