Friday Favorites – Food, Family, Friends, Football, Fun

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The day after Thanksgiving my very favorite thing to do is sleep late, have pie for breakfast and enjoy the day with no agenda and a little internet shopping.  I’m off to a great start!  
And my sweet friend Holly shares my love for dessert for breakfast and gave me this adorable pie plate on Wednesday!  
On to this weeks Friday favorites!  
ONE
It would be hard to start off Thanksgiving week Friday faves without starting with food.  Here are some of my very favorites that we have to have every year.  
First up is my Meme’s dressing.  I have tried to skip making this dressing and just ordering in the past but it just isn’t the same for me.  I usually prepare my cornbread, celery and onions ahead of time but I procrastinated and ended up preparing on thursday morning.  It turned out perfect and I will be eating leftovers today for sure! 
Broccoli Rice casserole is also another favorite.  I’ve made this several different ways over the years but always come back to this recipe using the secret ingredient Cheese Whiz.  Nothing healthy about this dish here but it is so good. 
I also make my Meme’s fruit salad which is super duper easy to make with the secret being peach pie filling.  I’d like to say this dish was a favorite for everyone at our Thanksgiving dinner but I failed to get it out of the fridge and over to our friends house!  Fail…will be having this today as well. 

And of course we had pumpkin pie along with chocolate and pecan.  Carly Jo helped make the pumpkin pie and I love that she is interested in being in the kitchen with me! 
And then as I was finishing up I peaked up from the sink and saw these two snuggled up enjoying a moment.  Keith tries to let us all think he is tough as nails but this little girl right here has him wrapped all the way around her finger! 
TWO
This year the Aggie game was in town so we also stayed in town instead of traveling to my hometown.  Keith’s mom and sister both work the football game and could not join us so this year we decided to have our Thanksgiving feast with our good friends the McBertys.  Holly set the most adorable table with lots of simple ideas that looked so put together and made us feel special.  

THREE
After lunch we headed to campus for some tailgating with friends before the game.  Our kids have grown up going to Aggie games and even though Jordan is the only true Aggie in our group thus far going to the games is definitely something we look forward to. 
Love these two girls!  Pregnancy brought us together 13 short years ago and we have seen lots of growing pains together but always, always have a great time when we hook up.  
 These girls…oh goodness I think we may be in trouble someday with these two!  They both want to attend A&M so we have high hopes that someday they will be roomies and will have so many great pictures to decorate their dorm room! 

This little turkey latched on to my big turkey and they snuggled at the game.  Since Jordan doesn’t live at our house Hope has not seen a lot of her but recently I told her that Jordan was my baby so now she just refers to her as “Aunt Shelly’s baby”.  So stinkin’ cute! 
 Night games are the best but it was definitely a little chilly. 
 We took a break after the first quarter and ran down to Aunt Amy’s office for a treat.  My sister in law always, always finds the best surprises for the kids and she did not disappoint with these little turkeys full of candy! 
FOUR
Having family pictures taken is so important to me and my kids know that this makes me so happy so once every year whether I hire someone or I take them myself we get together for pictures.  This has gotten harder and harder every year with the Bigs having so much going on and the only day the entire fall that worked for us was the wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I booked my very favorite photographer, Sarah Burns of Butterfly Chaser Photography.   Sarah comes from a big family so besides the fact that she is amazing behind a camera she is also extremely patient with my kids.  The other big challenge is that Keith works in Austin and this is the second time he has literally shown up at the very last second just in time to be in one picture so that I actually get a Christmas card!  Here are a few sneak peaks…NOT from my photographer but you can get the idea.     I will definitely be working on my Christmas card today so I will share the real deal soon.   

FIVE
Now that Thanksgiving is out of the way I’m ready to pull out my Christmas decorations and get the house ready.  I love my fall decorations but I really, really love my house decorated for Christmas.  Hopefully when the food coma wears off I’ll be ready to start the process.  Here are a few items I found while browsing through World Market that I’m really thinking I am going to have to add this year.  

Hope all of you who love Black Friday have scored big and all of you like me are enjoying the day at home.  Have a great long weekend….once it’s over the race is on! 
Linking up with these fun bloggers!