A Yankee Thanksgiving in Gettysburg

Joining friends for Thanksgiving, we travelled up to Gettysburg, PA to stay with their parents who recently moved there. It snowed just enough to coat the roofs and lawns, but not enough to cover the roads, creating the perfect winter landscape to enjoy from inside a cozy house.

Casa Paone

Their house is across the street from Little Round Top, so we took a quick stroll to the top before our Thanksgiving feast to work up an appetite and have our friend bring its history to life.

Our fearless tour guide explains what happened at Little Round Top.

It was a smart idea, as the feast was enough to feed an army. We ventured out on Black Friday for a bit of shopping at the outlets, and again on Saturday to see the college, the downtown, and the cemetery. And in honor of the Gettysburg Address being delivered in November 151 years ago, I attempted to memorize it (and came pretty close).

Black Friday fabric deals in downtown Gettysburg.

"Four score and seven years ago" 151 years later at Gettysburg cemetery

It was a relaxing getaway surprisingly close to DC, and I can't wait to return when it gets warmer.

Alabama Wedding

While I was visiting my cousins in Oregon, we heard the great news that one of our Alabama cousin's daughters was engaged. And with that, we hatched the plan for a girl cousins reunion at the wedding. I was lucky enough to have been there before, but this would be the first trip to Alabama for the other cousins. In fact, my last trip was for the bride's brother's wedding. My aunt supported her family by doing wedding flowers, and passed that gift on to her daughters, so that became our gift to the bride.

We arrived a few days early to be there when Haley received her endowment in the Birmingham temple, which is also where they'd be sealed.

Birmingham temple

The Alabama cousin was great at doing flowers, too, but as the bride's mom we wanted to let her focus on everything else. This was my first time doing something like this and I was so impressed to watch these ladies

sisters and floral pros putting the bouquets together

transform this

Flowers: before

 into this

The bride and her siblings (check out the bouquets)

Before the wedding we had a chance to go to lunch downtown with our Memphis cousin and meet his new bride.

pre-wedding lunch

The temple sealing was short and sweet, but you could feel the love in that room as a new family was created.

Representing the bride's side

The reception was held on the lawn of their chapel, filled with personal touches that were unique to the bride and groom. It was a great party, and one my highlights was seeing the bride pay tribute to her Hawaiian heritage by dancing a hula for her new husband.

Cousin Scott built this for the outdoor reception.

The elegant wedding cake, topped with bride and groom Lego figures--"Everything is Awesome!".

A southern tradition: the groom's table (he opted for cupcakes rather than a groom's cake)

view from the fire pits

After a few days when things had calmed down a bit, we spent a day enjoying Southern BBQ and some cute shops. We all had so much fun we've decided to make this gift a tradition. Congratulations, Haley and Trent!

Home of the bride's parents

BBQ with the girls

cousins