Thanksgiving 2010... in Pennsylvania?!

This Thanksgiving was the first holiday being away from our families. We couldn't afford to come home for Thanksgiving and Chirstmas. So our AWESOME friends Jessica and Doug invited us to go with them to Jessica's family's Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania. We stayed at her cousin's house who lives just a few minutes away from Valley Forge. They were so sweet and amazing hosts to us. We drove all through the night Wednesday after I got off work, and got there about 6:30 am on Thursday morning. Instead of going straight to bed, all the boys went and played in the Turkey Bowl football game. Crazy boys! Jared said it was perfect weather, and started snowing just a little toward the end. (I wouldn't know, I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow when we got there.) Thursday afternoon we had the big Thanksgiving dinner at their family's Chocolate shop called Zwahlen's (if you're ever in Valley Forge, PA, I suggest you definitely visit! Best. Chocolate. Ever!).

Behind us on the wall is their family tree, starting with their ancestors who came over from Bern, Switzerland (which is where my mom's father's family is from!)

A few pics of the cute decorated chocolate shop



Cute holiday card pic


After we ate WAY more than we should have, we played "Guess who's pregnant". Can you guess who really is?

If you guessed contestant # 2, you were right! Haha. The girl on the left is Jessica's cousin Amanda, who let us stay at her house. Jessica is the cute pregnant girl in the middle.

Later that night, we went to the outlets at midnight for the Black Friday sales. I got Jared a nice Columbia coat for only $47, normally $150. We also got him a nice church shirt from Perry Ellis for only $10. It was pretty funny, all the guy stores has like 3 people in them, and all the girl stores had lines that went outside the doors. It was so much fun, I've never been to the Black Friday sales before. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The only bad thing was that we had to park like a 1/2 mile away, but it really wasn't that bad, kind of a fun adventure.

When we were walking to the outlets it was completely dark except for the light of the stores we were walking toward, almost like a horror movie or something.


On the left is Jessica's husband Doug, then Neil and Amanda, who we stayed with.

Saturday we ran a "Burn off the bird" 5k. It was pretty fun, but probably one of the hardest 5k courses I've run, with a ton of it up steep hills, including the very end of the race. This is Jessica's aunt and uncle and cousins after the race.


We also played a lot of games and the boys watched a lot of football. It was a ton of fun to just hang out and relax. Their family was so much fun and we felt so welcomed there. Sunday morning we left to come back home to Michigan, and got home at almost midnight. We are very THANKFUL to Jessica's family welcoming for us as their own and treating us to TONS of delicious food. We are also thankful that we made it home safely and that we were able to have a fun relaxing vacation together.