Boston Thanksgiving!

Blogging is the new scrapbooking! Seriously, ever since Erica pointed out that you can have your blog printed as a book someday I'm taking the calling seriously. So even though Thanksgiving was a week ago today, I'm determined to give it its full spotlight.

We lived in Boston when I was 13 years old. It's always fun to go back and drive around, actually recognizing a few things. If you know my family, our vacations and memories center around two things: 1) shopping and 2) food.

So, for shopping: We hit the Christmas Tree Shops at least five times in the four days I was there. Rumor has it the family went at least three other times without me. We all managed to purchase unneccesary knick knacks, like the red serving platter I got for $1.69 and the creamy eyeshadow sticks the girls were fighting over. I also managed to leave with a pair of dress-up fairy wings for $1.99. I bought Natalie a coat rack for Christmas for $9.99. Don't even ask what my mom got. It filled six shopping bags, whatever it was. Also, Natalie found us the greatest shoe store ever. Here's our loot: I bought the Ugg knockoffs, the red heels, and mocassins for $29. Total. Kendall got sexy gray pumps and yellow peek-toes, Mally ended up with the darling herringbone flats and wicked-witch copper shoes. And don't forget Building 19 - it's like the Food-4-Less quality version of a Big Lots. Christmas Tree Shops is the Kohl's version of Big Lots.

Food: Caswells it was. Best chowder and fish ever. Conveniently it was about 1 mile from our "little yellow house" in Weymouth so who knows if it's the best seafood ever, but it definitely rivals any we've ever tasted. I embarassed myself by asking if Haddock was Halibut (no... it's Haddock). The parking lot picture is me sitting inside of Caswells, looking at the Burger King where Kurt and I ate dinner in 2005 after I chickened out and wouldn't drive any further in the dark to explore my old hometown. We were chowdered out by that point so we looked at Caswells while we ate burgers and fries.

Oh and let's not forget the Texas Roadhouse. We manage to find one almost anywhere. We had a little picture-taking contest across the table, sadly those pictures aren't in my posession. I think my team won.

Dunkin Donuts are EVERYWHERE in New England. Here are my city-girl sisters living it up in the Double D. This is before Kendall embarassed herself by accidentally getting into somebody else's car in the parking lot.

Our photo shoot - I won't bore you with pictures here, I'm sure they are/will be all over the place elsewhere - took place Thanksgiving morning. This picture is here to showcase two things 1) How squished we were in the backseat, so we didn't have to bother with two cars and 2) The Diet Coke Addiction. It's awesome. Sadly I don't partake - orange Fanta is more my thing - but we never drove without at least one being passed around the car. And went through at least 2 12-packs during my 4 days there.

Here is our Thanksgiving table. A surprisingly little of our vacation centered around what/how we would actually cook. We made some really creative uses out of pots, pans, and large cups in the bachelor pad where we were staying, and minus the seafoam jello (which we never eat at Thanksgiving anyway!?) it all turned out delectably! No tablecloth, no placemats, and paper cups. A little bit of heaven.

We were so lucky to stay in the nice apartment of "The Dentals", three of Nat's guy friends in Dental school. It was surprisingly well-decorated for a bachelor pad! Nat and girls made especially good use of their HDTV, watching at least a full season of "How I Met Your Mother." As a family we also watched Ocean's 13 and Hairspray. The blue wall is the kitchen and front room, the window is our view from the 14th floor.

One of my favorite memories was driving around looking at the amazing homes and landscapes around us. One day while I felt like a teen being forced to drive to Plymouth Rock (it wasn't so bad!) we all picked what our house would look like.
Mallory's Pick: (of course) A Yellow house.

My pick: Dark Taupe with Black shutters and Red door.

Kendall's pick: Dark blue or Dark Gray house - sorry, no picture.

Mallory fell asleep in the front room on Thanksgiving night. I couldn't resist snapping her picture because it really reminded me of 1998.

Okay... I wasn't going to say much about the family photo shoot but as I think more on it, it can't be left untouched.

Dad was amazing and rented us the flash I dearly want (need?) and even better, he was willing to drive those crazy New England roads to find the camera shop to get it. The day was beautiful - but of course the sun came out at precisely the wrong moment, exacerbating the Williams Squint. Regardless, we managed to get some nice pictures even though Kendall couldn't jump in time with the rest of us.

Nobody wanted to lay down on the cold, wet leaves with me - I think to get me back they threw them up in the air, knowing they'd land cold and wet on my neck. (Thus, my facial expression below). Or maybe Mal was getting back at us because originally she suggested throwing leaves and nobody wanted to. But then we ended up taking like 30 shots doing so - thanks Mal!

All in all a fun, amazing, little-bit-of-heaven trip. Thanks Mom and Dad!