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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Reflections of Thanksgiving 2008

We had a week of travels and we are back ....resting and getting ready for Christmas! Breathe....I am still trying to get energy so I can decorate for Christmas!
Looking back at our week:
We left last Sunday for Knoxville, TN to attend Trey's 1st Birthday Party. We had a good time....but someone was VERY ancy to get on the road (sooner then I wanted) so that made it hard to say goodbye! Men and their sports... (do i need to say who was ancy to go????!)
We arrived Monday at 10:30 in VA Beach ... the day was a hard one for Parker. He was cutting another Molar and it was hard for him to get comfortable ! We managed and were glad to arrive. He is such a great trooper and always adapts wherever we are!
We stayed at the VA Beach Resort & Conference Center (compliments of the Visitors Bureau)! Mike contacted them about the potential 2009 PWC softball tournament being held there! So we felt like a king and a queen to say the least during our visit! We met up with friends of ours from Church who were there visiting family! We had a great seafood dinner out and even got to drive on the boardwalk and see the Christmas Lights! It was so much fun to get to know you two more, Dusty and Megan! Not sure if the tournament will be there-the guys are checking out 2 other cities and then they will narrow down their decision by Feb!

We finally made it to our final destination (and MAIN reason for travel) to Fredrick, MD ! I was SO excited to finally arrive! (We were stuck in the good 'ol DC traffic for 2 hours on WED-not cool when you have a 15 mth old in the back seat-but thankful I had my MaMa Mia CD that kept him entertained LOL)
We stayed with Mike's oldest brother Brian and his wife Courtney! We could not have had better hosts (and they were WONDERFUL with Parker....and can I say SPOILED HIM WAY TO MUCH with gifts) A little side note; Parker took 3 steps on his own at their house. But his big accomplishement was learning how to climb or (go DOWN) stairs! He was SO proud. I am sure it helped him having the steps all broken up . (They live in a town house -so he only had 4 stairs at a time...he loved the big platforms to play on!)
Brian made a wonderful 21 LB turkey and the rest of us pitched in and made ALL (and we did not leave any side dishes out!) We had WAY to much food . No wonder I gained a few ....
Friday was Brian's 30th Birthday so we catered to making the day special for him.(We made sure to get up early and hit those awesome Black Friday Sales.....I was sad that we were limited on space (traveling home) but we got all the gifts and few items we did buy....home!!! YEAH!) We at a great BBQ restaurant and ended the night with Brusters Icecream Cake! Hope it was a fun 30th Brian for you!
Saturday we all woke up and focused on "Christmas!" Being that this was the year for all of Riese's to be together for Thanksgiving and not Christmas we ended the week exchanging our gifts! Parker was the king of gifts ... but that is the best part I guess about being the first grand-child! We are so grateful for ALL he got from all of you! HE LOVES all the musical toys you all got him!

I'm really looking forward to staying here and relaxing for Christmas...before our next departure....DISNEY CRUISE with my family (in Februray for my parents 40th anniversary) I am so excited but have so much to do between now and then! My neighbor next door teases me about being the world traveler....we are gone alot! ???! I am starting to enjoy having the weeks where we are just home more and more now!
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving ~ I will get the Christmas Cards out shortly!
(Praying that my camera comes back sooon-or that they mail me a new one!)
Here are 2 slide shows of our week!


Click to play Trip to TN & VA Beach!
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Click to play Riese Thanksgiving ~2008
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JENN :)