So much to be thankful for...

We've had a year full of blessings! Married life in Boston is fantastic. We love New England and have the best time exploring all it has to offer. Amit's almost halfway done with school and just finished his first board exam. The best part of Boston, though, is the amazing group of people that we are blessed to call our friends!

So to celebrate our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, and to give thanks for friends, I offered to cook the turkey and have everyone who was still in town over for some food... oh, and of course some Rockband!

John is always up for some Rock Band... 

and his kids are following in his footsteps!

Aiden even tried to sing and play drums at the same time...

We just didn't tell him that the drums/mic were actually off when he did.

So I definitely figured out the best way to keep hungry boys from getting impatient when waiting for dinner... Turn on Rockband. They probably played it for a good two hours before we ate.

I even got a chance to play in between turkey checks... 

although Abby enjoyed stealing my mic!

We got lots of quality Rockband time before our big meal... Now its time for the big reveal. Yep, the first turkey I have ever cooked on my own! It was a 21 pound turkey, stuffed with citrus and onion, with an herb butter rub. Sounds good, right??

My fantastically delicious turkey!

There was a LOT of food!

Tamsen made pumpkin cheesecake for dessert... Yum!

So all of us adults were in a food coma after dinner, but the kids were still full of energy. Aiden kept asking over and over again when we could play Rockband, but Abby amused herself for a while... Amit's shark oven mitt came in handy! (I definitely never expected us to use it this way when he put it on our registry!)

Abby came up, would bite us and say "Gotcha!"

So the big kids finally gave into Aiden (I mean, come on, who could really say no to him?) and started up again with Rockband. They put on quite a show! Here are some of my favorite random shots from the rest of the night... 

Amit admiring his handiwork... or maybe just wanting to eat it? 

Aiden has some real Rockband star potential!

Abby fell asleep on Tamsen, so John took this picture... How cute!!

Then when Abby woke up, I stole his camera to get this shot!

I think I'm getting pretty good at action shots...

Abby enjoyed playing with my stuffed animals...

this is her "Amit don't you dare touch my toy" face!

 

Here's a great shot of my handsome husband

 

Melissa took this picture of John "attacking" Tamsen!

She turned into our official Thanksgiving photographer...

Celebrating after Abby hit some notes when singing!

So that was our awesome Thanksgiving... Hopefully getting together like this will become a tradition, at least for the next two years!

Can't forget Max

I feel so bad right now!! At least Max isn't human, he won't mind being left out in my blog. (I feel bad that I left him out!)

BUT... He is my second most favorite part of the Chicago trip. (First being Nate's race, of course!) He was so excited to see me! He even slept between Mom and I on the bed, it was a slumber party!

What do Amit and I hate about Boston most?? It doesn't have Max in it! We miss having him hang out on the couch with us while we watch TV, sharing our dinner with him, and playing catch with him. Not having a dog around makes Amit want to get one...

But for now, Amit will have to deal with a special visit. Why? Because we only have to wait a few more weeks to see our Max... He's coming to Boston for Christmas!! That will definitely be an adventure!

Nate's Big Race

Last year I was spoiled. I was able to go to almost all of Nathan's cross country and track meets. Fall and spring just don't feel normal without going to them. I don't know what I'm going to do when he's done with college sports. :-(  This fall was so weird, since I couldn't be there to watch Nate run. I had to rely on Mom's play-by-play over the phone to keep me informed.

There's Mom talking to me on the phone at Conference.

Back to the real inspiration for this post... North Central College's 13th victory at the cross country championships!! It was a chilly, wet day to run and the boys were fantastic! Mom and I were nervous wrecks, as always, but Nate had been in a good mood when he visited us in the morning, so we were thinking positive thoughts.

Nervously waiting for his race

From the minute the race started, I knew it was going to be different than most of the others. It was such a fast pace and the front pack was really tight.

The first few times they passed me, I couldn't find all 7 of them!

 Nate's in the bottom left corner!

So I ran all over, going from spot to spot to try to see as much of the race as I could. I found Melanie again, after getting separated in the crazy crowd, and we got a great spot on the home stretch. We watched as all 7 of the guys finished. It was very exciting!! Everyone knew that North Central had won the meet, there was no competition. The boys were stronger and more determined than anyone else there.

How did we know they had won?? Well, it helps when you have throngs of red sweatshirts to follow. Its a very good indicator when everyone is sprinting and cheering their way to meet at the finish line.

There was only one man that we wanted to see... Nathan!!! He greeted us with some very sweaty (and muddy) hugs, but we didn't care! We were just excited to see our All-American!

That's right, my baby brother is an All-American. He placed 25th in his debut at the NCAA Cross Country National Championships!

Here are some more highlights from the day...

 My favorite shot from the day... Nate said that a lot of the course was this muddy!

Proud Sis and Mom!

It was an AWESOME day!

The team became National Champs for the 13th time,

 all seven of their runners were All-American (first time that has ever happened), 

they scored 50 points to win the meet, 

 and they won by the largest margin ever (131 points)!

So congrats NCC on an undefeated season, you have made us proud!

Most importantly, congrats to my awesome brother!! I am so proud of the man you've become and am so glad that I was able to be there with you as you celebrated this new milestone!

A Quick Chicago Trip

The highlight of my visit was definitely watching Nate run the best race of his season to help his team take nationals, but I got some good quality cousin time out of it as well. (There will be a whole posting dedicated to that race... so stay tuned.)

I flew in on Friday morning, so that I had enough time to stop at the DMV... That's right... I am now, officially known as Heather Patel!! Woo-hoo!! Then it was off to Lemont to get in some much needed family time! I got in some great aunt-niece time over salads and shopping, then had to bake some desserts for Saturday. And that was all before the kids got home from school!!

So what did we do once Krissy got home from school?? We met Coco!

Yep, Coco's her horse!! Who she's owned for a while now, but I haven't formally met yet since we live in Boston. :-(  But I was super excited to meet her. She's gorgeous... and huge!!! It is still so crazy to me that Kristyn is so comfortable around an animal that huge. Who wasn't?? Me and Melanie!! We were both a little worried that she'd kick us (Coco, not Kristyn - Krissy only kicks the boys).

Mel trying to get the nerve to pet Coco.

So Friday night we headed out east... We arrived in Cleveland at about 1:30 AM and then followed that up with a good 2-3 hours of girl talk. I really miss the family girl talk!!! So we got to bed around 4, which wouldn't have been too bad, but then Nate decided to text me at 7. If you do the math, that's about 3 hours of sleep. So since I couldn't go back to sleep after he texted me, I had to let him in the room. What'd he do once he got in? Jumped on top of the soundly sleeping cousins. (They were NOT happy!)

We didn't get to talk to Nate too much on Saturday, since he was focused on the race (more about that later). After the race we celebrated! I think he was really glad to have his favorite women at the race with him.  

The girls and their All American!!

What else was I able to fit into my crazy Chicago weekend? I was able to watch Mike play volleyball. His serves in one game helped bring his team back to win... He got at least 3 points in a row! I was really excited! I got my pizza, Chicago style, which was all I really wanted. Visited with most of my family, which was really impressive. All in all it was a really fun visit, but it was too quick and Amit wasn't there. I guess we'll just have to make up for that in January!