This year’s Thanksgiving was far different than a year ago. Last year, we said goodbye to our friends and family, packed our moving truck to the brim, and headed to Austin, Texas to start our new life together. As we reflect on this past year, we are incredibly thankful and blessed for what God provided us and we are incredibly lucky to have supportive friends and family. We count our blessings every day never take them for granted. This year has been a memorable year. Moving to Texas was the best decision we’ve made and we are looking forward what’s in store for us. I’d like to take this opportunity to list the things I’m most thankful for.
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1. We survived the Austin snowstorm A.K.A “Snow-vid.” We we’re without water for 3 weeks and had to scrape snow from our cars and on the ground to melt it for water to flush the toilet. We also had to get creative in the kitchen as we were limited with food. The community came together and truly showed their southern hospitality by helping each other out.
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2. We moved into our newly built home and shared the moment with family. It was 9 months in the making but worth the wait. It was an amazing process to be part of and we will always remember the journey of this house being built from the ground up.
3. We were able to travel internationally – Zach and I love to travel and we were able to travel to Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona.
4. We are thankful for landing our dream careers to “best places to work”
6. We remain grateful for the continued support and unconditional love from our family and friends
We are so fortunate to have all these opportunities and I’m so lucky to have a loving partner who I can share these moments with. While we were not returning to California this Thanksgiving Holiday, we got a chance to explore Dallas more.
Our first stop was seeing Zach’s friends who recently moved to Texas. They love it here as much as we do. Zach has been friends with them for ages and a God Father to one of their triplets. We stopped by around late afternoon and we got a chance to play with the kids and puppy while having a traditional Thanksgiving feast such as turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and veggies. The food was delicious and we were incredibly thankful for the feast and hospitality.
To celebrate thanksgiving, we celebrated with a steak dinner at Wicked Butcher in downtown Fort Worth. I’m not a huge fan of turkey and neither is Zach but we love a nice juicy steak. To start the meal, we received a complimentary procesco and a tuna tartar amuse-bouche boos. Then we ordered the best shrimp cocktail that we ever had then onto our steaks with asparagus and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. The steak was incredibly juicy and the sweet potatoes with marshmallows were a dessert in itself. It was the perfect Thanksgiving meal for us.
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The next day we went game hunting for retro vintage games. I didn’t realize how big the Dallas Metropolitan area was until you drive around it. We were able to check out three of them.
1. Retro Games
2. CGX
3. FX Games
After the first game store, we had to eat lunch. I picked Hot Pot because it was a little chili and I was craving Asian food. We went to an all you can eat hot pot in Carrollton called Mana Shabu Shabu. Zach has never been and I was excited to show him how to eat it. First we ordered the broth and picked our protein cuts. They had a variety to chose from from beef, chicken, seafood, vegetarian options for the broth. For the meat they had about 20 to chose from ranging from beef, pork, chicken, and fish. The vegetables, seafood, and sauces were at self serve station where you can grab as many as you like. We had 2 rounds of meat and we were stuffed and off we finish our game hunting the rest of the day.
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Our last day at Fort Worth was spent checking out popular local and tourist spots. The first stop was the stockyard which was recommended by Zach’s friend. It was certainly a blast from the past where rodeos and meat exchanges took place. There were plenty of steak houses to chose from and plenty of shops to shop at. This spot is a must see.
The next spot we checked out was Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. It’s a shopping district full of shops and restaurants as well as a hub for live performance.
The last and final spot we checked out was the water garden just a mile away from the square . It was a quick drive with plenty of parking. It was a cool water feature. Surrounding the fountain was a garden with the main attraction being the water feature. There are steps that lead to the bottom that is as a bit slippery but worth getting down to the bottom.
Thanksgiving may be a little different this year but we have each other. I’m so thankful that I have a loving, patient, and adventurous partner with who I can share these moments with.
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