Thanksgiving and other news

I guess it's about time for me to update our blog about Thanksgiving. We were able to go up to Ohio to Christine and Sam's this year. My dad and mom drove down to Chapel Hill to pick us up and take us to Ohio, so it was really nice to not have to drive. We even left at 3 am hoping Grant would continue to sleep for the morning hours of the drive. I think he was too excited to see Grandma and Grandpa (which he refers to as "munga" and "papa"--don't ask me where munga came from), and from seeing all the trucks on the highway. So basically Grant didn't sleep the entire trip, except for about an hour at the end. He did really well though, with no real crying or whining episodes.
We had a great time at Christine's and Sams. Basically our time was filled with eating lots of delicious food, hanging out, playing Rock Band, going to the park, and eating more delicious food. We were also able to squeeze in a trip to the temple (thanks to mom and dad for babysitting), and us ladies went to see Twilight while the fellows rented Iron Man. Grant had fun playing with Maddy and Mason and loved all their cool toys. Mason graciously shared his beloved vacuum and Grant also loved playing with Maddy's toy kitchen. We had a lot of fun and were sad to leave, especially since Christine and Sam won't be able to come out to VA for Christmas this year. Maybe we can talk them into staying in Ohio for a little longer.

I guess that brings me to our next bit of news: Ryan has been accepted to the orthodontic residency at Ohio State University. Yes we are going to be Buckeyes (which come to find out is a poisonous-seed pod). The program starts in June and we are excited for the new opportunities that await us there. We are definately sad to leave NC, we have really loved it here and have enjoyed living so close to my parents, but we feel like this is where we should be going and are getting geared up for it. One thing I know we won't be ready for is the freezing cold winters (we have been spoiled here), but hopefully we'll get used to it in the three years we are there.

These pictures are from this past weekend when we had our ward Christmas party. We did a back to Bethlehem theme with a Bethlehem market and then a Christmas program. It turned out really nice. We are on the activities committee and were in charge of setting up and running a booth. As you can see "Hazeez's Cheeses" was a popular stop in the market place, and Hazeez himself is pictured in this shot. Not pictured, but present that night were Hazeezette (myself) and Wee Hazeez (I imagine you can guess that would be Grant). The place looked great and it looked like people were enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, I had to take Wee Hazeez home before the program because he was getting very tired and cranky (he was still getting over a sickness), but Ryan said it went very well with good music and Christmas messages.

Thanks to my parents for bringing the decorations and costumes with them for us to use. They drove down the Ashville this past weekend to go to the Biltmore Estate and used our house as a stopping point. It was fun to see them for a little bit and all their decorations made our booth much more authentic looking.