A Very Texas Thanksgiving

As I mentioned, Aaron and I spent our very first Thanksgiving as a married couple in College Station, Texas. We have decided to start the "holiday switch off" this year so we will celebrate Christmas in San Francisco in a month. As you may or may not know, Aaron's brother Ryne is a senior at Texas A&M. Thursday night was the annual Texas v. Texas A&M game so we spent Thanksgiving cheering on the 'Horns! We left super early on Thanksgiving morning. We flew direct to Houston Hobby and when we arrived, Aaron's parents were waiting for us in the rental car. We hopped in the car, grabbed some snacks, and then rode along for 2 hours to College Station (which is a really pretty drive, by the way!) Grammy had driven in on Thursday morning from Eastland as well (about 4 hours door to door) and so when we got to Ryne's apartment, Ryne and Grammy had Thanksgiving lunch hot and ready to eat! We had turkey, ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, dressing, and rolls...yum! After a quick meal, we went to campus to watch the Corps of Cadets and team walk in. After parking and taking a shuttle to the main part of campus, we watched the procession (with a ton of other people!)



The Echols' brothers: different teams, matching mustaches.

Watching the Corp walk in was pretty impressive.


I couldn't get over how many people tried to cross the street in front of the Corp! Kind of annoying, not to mention, disrespectful.

Once we made our way into Kyle Field, we found our seats and, thanks to the power of text messaging, we figured out that Nicole and her dad and brother were only about 3 sections to the left of us. We headed to heir section to find them but they were hung up visiting with people outside the stadium. We managed to take a few pictures from their seats though...

Yes, they sat RIGHT behind the Longhorn band!!!



We didn't take a lot of pictures at the game because 1) we were packed in that stadium like sardines. The seats are bleachers and as Aaron says, they were made for the size of an average person about 60 years ago. We spent the entire game standing, essentially--at an angle so we'd all fit in the dang row! 2) I was so worried we were going to lose!!! The Aggies played pretty well. Also, I will say this about A&M--their fans know how to get LOUD. I've never been in a staidum that loud. They have all kinds of yells and chants. In one of the fight songs, all the students join arms and sway side to side and you can see the ENTIRE stadium moving. Pretty darn cool...

We were able to get this shot, at least.

And then, we got the shot that mattered...when Texas WON!

We sang "The Eyes of Texas", took our photo and then headed out to find Ryne to head back to the car.


It took us an hour and a half to get off campus with all the re-routing and road closures. As you can imagine, we were all pretty exhausted so we dropped Grammy, Craig, and Terrie off at their hotels and headed back to Ryne's. Ryne's roommate Brock was staying with his parents for Thanksgiving so he graciously offered his room to us! It was great to get to stay with Ryne since we never get to see him.

After sleeping in, we woke up on Friday and headed to a place called The Blue Baker for breakfast. We took a driving tour of A&M and then went back to Ryne's to meet Brock and his parents. After they left, we went to Freebirds for burritos. I've heard so much about this place that I was excited to finally eat there. After Freebirds, we went to Cavenders to look around and I got a great deal on a new pair of boots, yeah! We spent the rest of the night watching TV and eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Saturday morning came really fast...we got up and had an early lunch at Rosa's cafe, Aaron's Tex-Mex favorite and then hit the road back to Houston.

It was a fast trip (with not enough picture taking, obviously) but I'm so glad we got to spend it with family. I hope your holiday was blessed. And now, full speed ahead to CHRISTMAS!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9