Our first Thanksgiving

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving...there are many reasons for this excitement.
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a. My family is visiting for the first time to Mississippi! I cannot wait to show them where I live and to show them the cool town of Oxford and the pretty campus a little bit.

b. obviously, it is my absolute favorite meal of the entire year. it is so fun to sit around and visit and pass yummy dishes around...I can not wait for the mashed potatoes, the turkey, veggies, sweet potato casserole, rolls, pies, etc, etc, etc.

c. it is the first thanksgiving Madison & I will be together for! Since our families live so far apart, we always had Thanksgiving & Christmas w/ our respective families. So yes, this Christmas will be our FIRST Christmas together too! I am very excited for that too and we will have a fun time at the Taylors. It will be fun to see Christmas done a different way, since everyone does it a little differently. I have always spent Christmas and Thanksgiving with my family -- for 22 years! So it's going to be interesting to have a different Holiday experience.

d. I get to see my family for the first time since June! The longest I have ever gone not seeing my family.

I cannot believe we have only been married for 6 months (at the end of this month it will be 6 months) and we are hosting Thanksgiving! ahh! It will be so much fun and I cannot wait. I love the Holidays.

Christmas is bittersweet for me...it does not make me love Christmas music or anything about Christmas any less, it's just a difficult time of year as well as a very happy time of year. I always cry on Christmas Eve no matter where I am, since that is the night my mom passed away. Last year was quite embarrassing because I was playing on Edman Stage to a sold out audience at the Christmas festival. It was interesting, trying to read the music through teary eyes, but I definitely got a ton of hugs afterwards. I miss having so many friends around from the conserve and such!

Enough depressing talk though - I am way excited for Thanksgiving, having a wonderful time with family, decorating for Christmas, celebrating Christmas, and playing Christmas music with my students for a few more weeks until they are done with school.

I don't know if I will have time to post before Thanksgiving again, but I will definitely take lots of pictures and post them afterwards.