A Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving...

This was the first year I ever spent Thanksgiving away from my family. It was also the first year that didn't involve a home-cooked meal. I was able to spend it with my friend, Amanda, and her sweet little boy Mason.

I spent most of the morning cleaning the house, in anticipation of putting up all the Christmas decorations the following day, and then I was off to pick up our food. That's right! I picked up our Thanksgiving meals from Cracker Barrel, one of the few places that was still open. Much to my surprise, the place was PACKED. I managed to find the worst imaginable parking spot ever and then braved the sea of people waiting outside of the restaurant.

Luckily, a waitress took my order almost immediately after I got there. I was hoping to browse their country store while waiting, but I think a lot of people had the same idea. It was pretty much impossible to walk around the store, so I just hovered at the check-out, waiting for our food. It didn't take long, I was back in my car on my way within 30 minutes of getting there. If all those people waiting for table would have just considered eating in the comfort of their own homes, they could have gotten out of the sea of people as quickly as I did. I felt bad for the employees... mostly because the costumers that I encountered were less than friendly and annoyed about the wait. The the employees who helped me were very friendly and cheerful, however. Kudos to them.

 After picking up the food, I spent the rest of the afternoon at Amanda's. We were both super hungry by the time I got there! Everything tasted really good, except I wasn't a fan of the cornbread stuffing.

After dinner we got out the power tools and did a little kitchen upgrade while making room for pie. :)

We just added hardware to all her cabinets in the kitchen. I mostly just followed her around with the vacuum cleaner. Haha.

 

Don't worry --  Mason wasn't standing under the drill like that while we were actually working! He was fascinated by it though. He walked around the kitchen the whole time mimicking the sound the drill was making. It was hilarious.

 

Then it was time for pumpkin pie! Mason is working on his utensil skills. :)

 

He really enjoyed it!

I think he's trying to smile with a mouth full of pie!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!