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Location: Dalton, Wisconsin, USA

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It’s a beautiful day here on Spring Lake. The sun is out, it’s about 40 degrees F, and we are STUFFED full of Thanksgiving wonderfulness. Let me back up.

So the Cranberries, were amazing. They played such a great show and haven’t changed one bit. Sometimes I think concerts can drag on a bit, but this was the perfect length, the perfect crowd, the perfect venue. It was just very well put together. We left the show and walked Brian and Sam to a bar before heading back home to get some shut eye and pack up all of our junk.

We left Chicago, around 7 AM. Despite previous ideas, we did not pick up Brian’s brother and his friends in northern Chicago, so it was just the four of us (Dan, Brian, Emma and myself). We stopped at a Wal-Mart Supercenter just north of Chi-town and split up in to groups to grocery shop efficiently (duh, my idea – I even made a separate shopping list for each person). The best part, is that we only spent $120 including all of our food AND booze. Such a great deal. Now we hit a small problem after we got back in the car, and that was that we were already putting 4 people, plus our luggage (which included Brian’s guitar) into Wanda, who is quite small. We literally had to load the groceries in through the windows on to Emma and my laps in order to fit everything in. Let’s just say, it was not the most fun hour of my life.

After driving through the Wisconsin countryside for what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at our own perfect Thanksgiving Day lake house. I mean, seriously, I could have not picked this place better out of a catalog. The house itself is a 2.5 bedroom (two full sized rooms and a small twin bed in a ½ room) with a large living room/dining room/den area, a GIGANTIC back wrap-around porch and a huge entryway/living room/dry room. The place is HUGE - way more than we needed. There is even a washer and dryer in the basement (which has been going basically non-stop since we got here). The house is right on the water, with a small rowboat and dock attached. There’s a climbing tree, hiking trails, a huge yard. And the best part is that we are in the middle of Amish country so everyone around us is riding their horses, riding horse and buggies, we’re surrounded by bakeries, woodworking shops, tack shops, cafes. Absolutely perfect.

As soon as we got here, I started cooking. For our meal today, we had:

	A turkey
	Green Bean Casserole
	Mashed Potatoes
	Rolls

I also made queso for pre-dinner snack while we’re watching football and two pies for desert: a pumpkin pie and a chocolate pie. Now, this was my first Thanksgiving I’ve ever cooked the whole thing for and I was really nervous but trying not to show it so that everyone wouldn’t think I was a rookie. But everything turned out really great, nothing too overcooked, no food poisoning, and no leftovers. I’m quite proud of myself :)

So tonight we are watching football and drinking and playing card games and practicing our band and just hanging out. Bedtime will be early tonight and tomorrow will be another day of just… doing nothing.

XOXO

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