Thanksgiving Break!!

Let me just tell you, I LOVED going home for Thanksgiving!!! It was amazing! I traveled a little under 7,000 miles in all, but every minute was just what I wanted!! There was so much that happened that it is hard to remember everything. First off, I flew home on Tuesday. I was so excited and was ready to leave about 2 hours before it was time to go. I really do hate flying (I still do not know why I picked a school that I can only get to by airplane because I really do hate them) so to distract myself on this flight, I decided I would finish reading my book A Girl with A Dragon Tattoo. It was not my favorite book, but I still finished it. My lovely brother Ryan (who drove down from Provo that day just to spend time with me) came and picked me up from the airport. He had lots of fun stories to share and I was glad to spend time with him because I did not get to see him as much as I wanted over the summer. My parents and dog all waited up to see me, so I said hello and then was off to bed. It was so nice to sleep in my own bed! I really had missed it!!

On Wednesday morning, Ryan and I got up early to do some things for my mom around the house. We fixed the Christmas lights (well Ryan did), put all those boxes away, set up 2 Christmas trees (I moved the furniture and vacuumed the rooms), ran some errands, got down all the Christmas stuff from the attic (there was a lot!!!), and went out to Raising Canes for lunch with my mom and sister, Amy. It was delicious!! I loved walking around outside even though I was freezing because it finally felt like winter time. I loved the cold air and having to bundle up! Once everyone was home, we took off for Salt Lake City.

All of my mom's side of the family lives up in Utah (well like 95% of them) and we all get together every year for Thanksgiving. I never see all my cousins that often, so this is like our yearly get together. The day started off by helping out with dinner and doing Amy, Ashley, and my mom's makeup. I loved it! Dinner was amazing and it was nice to have a large home-cooked meal. I cook myself dinner at college, but on a small budget, a dinner like Thanksgiving is never possible. I enjoyed it so much!!! Everything was just so delicious! After dinner, some of my other cousins came over that had not been there for dinner. It was so nice to see everyone! The cousins I am probably closest to is my cousin Julie. She is so much fun!! Her kids are the closest relatives I have to my age (the picture to the side two of her kids...Amanda, Amy, Jeremy, and me), so maybe that is why we get along so much. Julie and my family have an annual tradition of BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!!! It is so much fun!! We pretty much spent the rest of Thanksgiving planning our shopping adventure. Everything opened so early this year that there were so many more people this year!! My favorite stores we went to were Wal-Mart and Target. At Target, we waited outside in a line for about an hour in a half. The trip to these two stores was pretty successful and we got everything we wanted. After that though, the other stores were just a bust.

We returned home earlier than ever from Black Friday shopping and maybe got a tiny bit of sleep (more like an hour nap). Julie's family and mine decided to go out to breakfast that morning at a place called Kneader's. It was pretty delicious and was so much fun with the family!! Since I was leaving that night, we had a lot to do in only a short amount of time. I wanted to see my family and cousins for the most amount of time, so our two families pretty much hung out until I left. Julie and I made a run to Costco to grab some other Christmas gifts, I painted Amanda's nails while Amy and Ashley did Brittney's nails, I went to my little cousin Tyler's indoor soccer game (he was really good), and had some good laughs along the way. We returned to my Uncle's house for dinner to eat left overs from Thanksgiving! It was probably even more delicious the second time around!!! After that we just hung out and I got to spend some time with my Grandma. I was really grateful for that.

I then left for the airport. I flew from Salt Lake to Las Vegas. The airport was completely dead and I walked right through security! I actually had my own row on the flight, so I stretched out my legs and enjoyed the space! After landing in Vegas, my good friend Pierson picked me up and took me to the other terminal. I pretty much walked through security there and waited about an hour for my next flight! I love having netflix on my phone because it makes the time go by faster!! After the long flight back to the island I returned home. I really did not sleep for two days (I think I counted about 55 hours of being awake), so I crashed when I got to my bed!!! The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting used to being in Hawaii again!

I am so glad I got to go home and am thankful I had the chance to. It was exactly what I needed at that moment and it was so much fun to see the family. Holidays are meant to be spent with the ones you love and after being stuck in Hawaii last year, I realized how much I appreciated my family and how much I wanted to spend the holidays with them. Being alone is not as much fun as being surrounded by those you love!