Thanksgiving/Our Third Anniversary

I can't believe I haven't written in so long. Then again, I've had good reason.

Jeff & I spent Thanksgiving in Oklahoma this year. It was my first major holiday away from home, so naturally I was a little sentimental about being away from my family and their traditions, but it had been a long time since I'd seen my in-laws, and Jeff was absolutely thrilled to be spending Thanksgiving in his old hometown. We drove up to Oklahoma City on Wednesday (the drive took a total of 11 hours, thanks to traffic!), spent the night at the Renaissance, got up early on Thanksgiving Day, and finished the drive to Alva.

JoLisa, Roger, & Kaitlyn also came down, so it was great to see them. Jeff & I could hardly believe how big Kaitlyn has gotten in a year! She is going through her "shy" stage, so she was a little leery of Uncle Jeff & Aunt Taylor, but she finally warmed up to us a little bit by the end of the trip. Here are a few pictures:




Sue also wanted us to take a few family pictures while we were there, and I'm so glad we did. The only pictures I have of the whole Henderson side of my family are from my and/or JoLisa's wedding! I think they turned out pretty good:


So Alva was fun, but traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday makes time go by way too fast. Before I knew it, a week had passed, and Jeff & I were celebrating our third anniversary!

Our actual anniversary fell on a Wednesday this year (blah), so we did our celebrating on Friday night. Jeff pulled out all the stops and took me to Dolores del Rio, a darling, romantic Italian restaurant on the River Walk that has some special meaning to us... Two months after we started dating, when Jeff came down to visit in October, we went to see "The Wizard of Oz" at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. We had dinner at Dolores del Rio beforehand, and there we talked for the first time about "us" and our future together. For some strange reason, we hadn't been back since then, so Jeff's creativity and sentimentality--which normally aren't his strong suits--in choosing such a significant dinner spot for our anniversary meant the world to me.

Dinner was fabulous. I went out on a limb and ordered veal picatta, and he had snapper. Both were delicious. It was possibly the only time in my entire pregnancy that I actually missed being able to partake in a glass of wine, but we had such a wonderful time that nothing could have detracted from it. Not even my lack of vino.

I can hardly believe we have been married for three whole years. While it seems like Jeff & I have been together forever, the actual wedding seems like yesterday. Aside from being somewhat stressed as a result of bickering with my mother--something I will undoubtedly regret for the rest of my life--I remember being so incredibly happy on my wedding day. Everything was just perfect.

And yet, I'm even happier now. I have my husband to thank for that.