Fake Glasses in a Bookstore: Thanking, Giving, Thanksgiving-ing, Etc!

happy december, everybody!

i cannot believe how long it's been since my last post! and if you've really been pining for an update, then i apologize. there's oh. so. much. to report on, & it's going to take a couple posts over the next few weeks! but first up:

thanksgiving! ... in texas!

let's take some time to re-thanksgiving, shall we? so you may or may not know that i had full intentions of spending my first out-of-college thanksgiving away from home. it made me incredibly sad, but i was prepared to do it! a mark of adulthood it was! i had started preparing in october, trying to make plans to see the parade, go to trinity grace's thanksgiving meal, etc., and it was going to be just fine. i already knew roommate #1 (rachel) would be out of town, but then...roommate #2 (alekza)'s sweet momma surprised her with tickets home! and the following thought of being alone in my home on thanksgiving was a VERY sad one indeed. i hesitated to tell the 'rents, because i still wanted to stick it out in nyc. but once they found out, i received a few miss calls during bible study, and then the following text: "you might wanna call...your dad bought you a ticket!" well, i spent a few moments in panic over the possible price of this surprise, my "dwindling" adulthood, etc, etc, til my bible study leader Mariette said, "Kelsey, they want to give you this gift - and it's awesome! RECEIVE THIS GIFT!" to which i replied, "OK YOU'RE RIGHT" and freaked out to my parents because they are the most wonderful, generous parents of all time!

then, a "nor'easter storm" decided to sweep in, causing delta to transfer wednesday flights to tuesday - for free! and causing my awesomely awesome boss to let me go home a day early! WHAT. so those 5 full days at home were the sweetest thanksgiving days i coulda asked for. some pics:

andrew's only request was that we ice skate for an hour.

& trust me, grapevine mills is almost as magical as rockefeller itself.

she might have grown up on new jersey skating rinks...

but she's still more comfortable when at rest.

so that was fun! followed by some fun in the food court (what truly great holidays are made of?), sonic dranks, and a non-sensical amount of time spent shopping (aka roaming around) in Sun & Ski. the poor lady following us around surely thought she was going to get mega commission out of us. but alas...we were a pretty big let down. (bought ski pants, though! & chapstick!) and about 74 glorious hallmark movies later (i don't get that channel in nyc), it was finally thanksgiving day!

sisters, sisters...

wahoo, the gang's all here! ah, still can't get over how happy i was to be spending the day with them! and glad i still haven't had to have a thanksgiving without 'em. maybe next year ;) and so weird to be watching the Macy's Parade with my fam per usual, but to live there now! and to like...take my lunch breaks RIGHT there. i watched the parade last thanksgiving & had no clue...so crazy. but i digress. so usually we have most of our extended family over to our house for thanksgiving, and even though our numbers were a little smaller this year, it was still some dang good Rhodes food & some dang good Rhodes company. it was so fun to catch up on everyone's lives & get to fill them in on what's been going on in mine! and even though sharing the details of my apartment layout with relatives suddenly makes it sound that much smaller...i felt pretty proud just the same ;)

the cousin table via andrew's fish eye lens. love these cuzzins.

a couple that pianos together...is a couple that makes for some precious photos:)


the expression permanently affixed to dad's face when he does anything involving a remote amount of effort;)

^^ ken ;)

so, when crock pot chicken & gourmet oatmeals define your "homemade food" portfolio, anything served in a pyrex dish will do. but man, WAS I SPOILED. that turkey. those rolls. that stuffing. the corn. and those SWEET TATERS! it was some kind of joke. and then i really don't want to bring up the desserts except to say i only got away with eating my extensive portions of pecan pie/carrot bundt cake/pumpkin rolls through andrew's agreement to share a plate with me. which of course meant he wasn't actually hungry enough for dessert because he has this odd disorder called "i stop eating when i'm full."

finally, there were family photos. our family always seems to get one large family photo every thanksgiving even though we've never actually sent out christmas cards. but for some reason this year we turned it into a major production...we included the animals! an outdoor photo, animals roaming nearby...we're just your average everyday farmhouse family;) (in the middle of colleyville). but we must be country people cuz we're from texas. or at least that's how i'm told it works by northerners. but anyway, the picture actually turned out really well & i really really love this photo!:

THE ANIMALS!

then we said our goodbyes, actually found some room for a dinner of sorts, & mulled over a late night movie. (just kidding, we decided on elf & it took us like 2 seconds.)

the next day i was a little hesitant to go into dallas on black friday (i'm always hesitant to spend time driving into dallas when i'm only home for a few days! also...our family doesn't love black friday.) but i gotta say, my mom, kristen & i had a pretty successful & good day of christmas errands! primarily thanks to gap & west elm, but also thanks to ITALIAN FOOD. & because spending time with my mom & sis #2 (& sis #1, had she been there!) is a really refreshing way to spend a day. And if that weren't enough, I got to sneak in a quick late night coffee with honorary sister #4, little caylala chastain!

gosh, it was good to see this cute lady. but so weird that she's already close enough to graduation to start talking about the future & where she might end up. i'm not old enough for this yet! turn back time! i liked it when all that was on our to-do list was eating brownie batter out of the mixing bowl & watching high school musical. but at the same time...it's pretty exciting to hang onto these friendships while watching each other start to do the things we've always said we wanted to do. i hope that's ^ one reunion i'll keep having for a really long time.

and also, them:

Even when I saw these people everyday, it was never enough. But every teeny reunion I get with them fills me up just enough to make it to the next one. I'm so thankful for these people...and the ones who aren't in this picture that I wish could have been :( I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but it is weird, the process of developing friendships in new york. I've met some rather awesome people so far that I hope stick around in my life for awhile, but NYC is just known to be an "oh, I spent a year or two in NYC right out of college" kind of place, so it's hard to know how long you might have with any given friendship. People all come here for different reasons, and thus, people all leave for different reasons at different times. You might develop an amazing friendship your first year in the city, but wait, it's their fourth year in the city. And they just got engaged. So they want to settle down & relocate the next year. Or they're about to graduate from grad school & they're heading south after graduation. Etc. etc. It's just weird! It's something you don't often think about being an issue! Isn't the issue of rent & employment & feeding-of-self ENOUGH? ;) anyway, all this nonsense to say, I'm so thankful to have ^ these friendships as a sort of platform to step back on no matter the status of new friendships that come & go. because they ain't going nowhere. i just wish that if they were...that'd it be to new york city, preferably on my doorstep. so anyway, we had a good time at Corner Bakery. caught up on job status, marriage status, birthdays, family, highs, lows, light-up toy chickens and mature stuff like 'at. ;) and i soaked. up. every. minute!

then i got to:
decorate the tree with my family!

my favorite day of the calendar YEAR. we drank eggnog, we ate pie, we played Amy Grant/Avalon/the Carpenters Christmas cds, we played a board game, and we were M-E-R-R-Y. So then I took enough mental pictures to be able to pretend all of the decorations were following me home to my apartment for appx. the next 25 days. Anyway, it was really hard to leave, but i guess new york at christmas time ain't that bad. ;) So now i'm back in the big apple, and it's actually pretty magical! Trying to balance Bowl Game season at work with Christmas party season with freezing season with I want time to enjoy Christmas in New York season. And then a few auditions added in like little early-mornings-man-im-tired sprinkles on top. WHEW. it's been crazy. but i'm infinitely grateful for it! God has blessed me & blessed me & then when I think surely I'm undeserving of more gifts, He's back at it again. This city, this family, these roommates, this job, in the words of Bing "iiii've got plenty to be thankful for." Yeah, it's been a giant learning season, and sometimes growing hurts, but I'm so thankful for the final product God has planned through that growth. He's teaching me patience, selfessness, trust, gentleness & just a whole lot of other fruits of the Spirit I've been needing, and I could write a whole blog post on it. And i probably will. ;) and thus i leave you, with a few more pics: