Thanksgiving in Chicago

 

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! Ours was almost perfect in every way.

When I landed in Chicago we went straight downtown to my visit my cousin Amanda's new condo. My only request was that we had to order some Girodono's deep dish pizza.

Even though it was Monday all my besties came over to catch up and just be together.

 

Being home is amazing, but it sure is a bitter reminder of how deeply I miss all of these people.

Tuesday and Wednesday I spent most of my time helping my mom set up for Thanksgiving. We hosted 28 people at our house, and I got my first real time expierence of how hard it really is to host a party like that.  

It was hard work, but everything we did turned out really beautifully and the food was amazing - plus all of our pre-work meant that we were able to just enjoy Thanksgiving and not have to be in the kitchen the whole time. 

 

Joel flew into Chicago late Wednesday night and we somehow made it to my 9th annual (our 5th annual together) Turkey Trot. 

It was 20 degrees and it literally took me 3 hours to thaw out.

 That's also when I start to remember that I sometimes do love living in Los Angeles. 

Soon thereafter the masses started to arrive at our house and Thanksgiving was in full swing. 

 

 

We moved some things out of our living room, but we were able to get all 25 of us at a pretty perfect "L" shaped table.

 

 

After dinner we played a few rounds of Pictionary before the easel was taken over by a couple of cute kids. 

 I had been so nervous about bringing Roscoe home. I have a big family and tons of little cousins, and Roscoe just isn't used to either! I was so happy and proud of him. He was so gentle with all of the kids, loved all of the attention from our family, and acted like such a good boy. 

On Friday, the parties continued.

For brunch we celebrated my mom's birthday at my cousin's house in Park Ridge.

 

It had been a long time since we had all the cousins together and basically had to pushed out the doors when it was time to leave each other.

 

Luckily for us, Joel's brother and sister-in-law live 10 minutes from my cousin's  so we were able to have dinner with them on Friday night.

 

We don't get nearly enough time with our niece and nephew and so it was really nice to squeeze in some one on one time with them.

And I'm still getting used to and falling in love with hearing Aunt Tess and Uncle Joel.

 

 Saturday we put up the Christmas tree at home and met up with a group of neighborhood friends.

 

My mom (and I) love tequila, so for her birthday Joel was able to track down George Clooney's new tequila Casa Migos as a birthday present for her - and it did not disappoint.

 

I had a really, really hard time leaving my family and friends this time around. There just will never be enough time  to soak them all in but I'm so thankful that in just a quick 3 hour flight I can be with them and it's like no time has ever passed. 

Life is so good.