Turkey Weekend 2011

One of the hardest parts of moving far, far away is always the fear of not having anywhere to go for the holidays. Though I've been lucky enough to have been "adopted" or find friends to make arrangements with (family friends in Texas, other holiday-homeless coworkers), it's always a little fear in the back of my mind. This year, having just moved to Georgia, I'm lucky enough to say that one of my sorority sisters from my pledge class lives in southern Georgia - a good 4 hours away, but so worth that trip and having a home to go! 

Monica had baby Jace in May and I hadn't gotten to meet him yet, so this was also the best opportunity to get to meet the little one, Jace. I left work a little early on Wednesday to get the drive over with. MapQuest said it was a 4.5 hour drive, I did it in almost 4 hours on the dot to Valdosta. I haven't seen Monica since before she was even pregnant (June 2010), so it's kinda weird she already has a 6-month old! Wednesday I got in so late, we just had dinner, ran to see a friend of hers, last-minute food shopped at Walmart, and called it a day.

Thanksgiving was a great day in and of itself. I woke up early to go to do a 5K (I know, who am I?) in downtown - mind you, I was still getting over being sick, had run once in the last two weeks, and probably should have not chugged along as well as I did. Oh well? I finished 5th in my age group, but did it under 31 minutes, so I'm still pretty okay with that given the last two weeks' worth of coughing and blahness. After that, it was back to the house for food prep fun! I was in charge of dessert - right up my alley, you know! Many thanks to Pinterest, we ended up with a pumpkin layer cake and the awesome, adorable pilgrim hat cookies that were apparently quite the hit! A few friends of Monica's and Todd's came, where thankfully I was not the only one who didn't know anyone else! It was great meeting new folks and having an amazing deep-fried turkey, complete with all the sides you'd ever want. Delicious. The end day ended gloriously with a few glass of wine and good long talks with an old friend. I miss that!

Friday was a little more relaxing, after staying up too late with that bottle of wine! We decided there were a few stores we wanted to venture to, but only when (and if) we woke up. Well, eventually, we did and headed out around noon with Jace in tow to Target, Kohl's, Petsmart, Toys 'R Us, and Children's Place. I got boots for New York (next this week!) with a 15% off coupon AND a $5 off coupon, so success! Also got a few extra things that I didn't really need anyway but got on a good deal (Molly's Christmas presents, for one). After we were shopped out, I packed up and headed to Atlanta for...

CLEAN OLD FASHIONED HATE. Yep, the annual UGA/Georgia Tech game. I was lucky enough to get a ticket thanks to Heather, so made my way to Heather's Friday night; since the game was at noon on Saturday, we were planning to be on campus BY 7 am for tailgating fun. So, believe it or not, I was up at 5:45 am... to go tailgating. Whoulda thought? Good times. I tailgated with them back in September for a GT game, so I knew a few of the folks that were there, and some new faces. It was a great time, once it warmed  up a little! Made our way into the stadium, befriended (if you want to call it that) a few GT fans around me, but was happy that the entire stadium was a happy mix of red and gold, so I wasn't too out of place. Overall, it was actually quite a boring game, with a few stints of excitement, but nothing to write home about (and here I am, blogging about it). In the end, all that matters of course, is that UGA won 31-17. Happy times.

To round out the day, Heather and I raced to Atlantic Station to use our Old Navy GroupOns ($10 for $20 of merchandise) and since we both also had Rewards to use, why not? And, of course, in true Megan style, had to stop for a photo with the tree, always my favorite part of the holidays! Made my way back to Athens, picked up the pup (who was really excited to see me!) and headed home and managed to pass out on the couch at 9 pm. Glorious.

Many thanks to Moni (and Todd!), Heather, and all the other random folks I got to hang out with this weekend for making it a great first Turkey Weekend in Georgia. Much love to you all. Hope all my readers had a great holiday as well!