Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade // napping // the most amazing 5 course, 2 hour feast at Palma // a 1.5 mile walk home to walk off our dinner // watching our hometown football team
We ended the day with full hearts and bellies. Thankful for a beautiful life with those two handsome men up there.
We’ll be celebrating our first Thanksgiving as a family of three today in true New York style: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade followed by a five course turkey dinner at a quaint little eatery in the West Village. This is Andrew’s first day off in over three weeks (!), so Linky and I are pretty excited to have him all to ourselves.
The rest of our family is scattered throughout the globe today, but last year we were all together in Chicago. And my sis-in-law, who is the farthest away from all of us (interning at an orphanage in Romania) (p.s. we miss you Deedee!), came up with this fun and memorable tradition of having a nice-off around the dinner table. One person starts by saying something nice about another person at the table. The recipient of the compliment then chooses another person at the table to make a thoughtful comment about, and so on until everyone’s received and given kind words. Make your own rules about how many rounds there will be and at the end you can vote for the best compliment. The competitive spin encourages everyone to dig past the more apparent qualities, verbalizing their appreciation for the little things. Plus, seeing your family trying to one-up each others’ heartfelt words is pretty amusing. By the end you’re reminded of how awesome everyone around you is and there are fuzzy feelings all around.
Norman Rockwell “Freedom from Want” painting spoof by Chad Frye
I’ve been MIA for over a week and now I’m blogging Monday Motivations on a Tuesday night. It’s only fitting since I’ve been playing catch-up the entire month of November. And we’re kind of living in New York for the next month. (Whaaaaat?) After being in upstate New York for two weeks, Andrew was transferred to Manhattan last week. So Linky and I packed up the car and drove here asap.
Some things I’ve been especially grateful for in no particular order: for this time in one of my favorite cities, a hard-working husband, that God is in control, health, burgers, girlfriends both old and new, and sunny days in the middle of cloudy weeks.
Even though Christmas lights are already up everywhere, we just got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving in Chicago, and I haven’t switched holiday modes yet. There’s just too much to be thankful for. It was so great to see family and friends, savor amazing food, and even get away for a couples’ night in downtown (complete with hotel stay and fancy dinner). This past week made me realize how grateful I am for the following things (in no particular order):
• beautiful architecture – Chicago is breathtaking
• baby hand-me-downs
• health
• God’s providence
• my adorable four-year-old nephew who said between sniffles as he got in the car to go back to New York, “I hope. That one day. We can all live in the same house, in the same city.” awwwww
• until then, I’m thankful for airplanes
• oh, and mujdei (Romanian garlic sauce)
How gorgeous is this tablescape arranged by my sis-in-law Andrea? It was the perfect setting for our simple meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and brussel sprouts. And mujdei. Duh. Hope your Thanksgivings were filled with lots of love, food, and laughter.
A few snapshots of a wonderful day of gluttony and thanksgiving spent with family…
My sister-in-law Andrea did an amazing job with the tablescape.
Dessert table by Anca: chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan squares
Setting the mood.
So much good food. Menu: the most moist turkey ever (brined for 3 days), Romanian garlic sauce (mujdei), homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, stuffing, roasted pearl onions.
My adorable nephew, James…
Andrew has his usual I-don’t-wanna-take-a-picture face and it’s blurry, but it’s the only photo we got that night.
Goofing around.
A week later and I still have a food baby. Happy Wednesday and hope your post-Thanksgiving diets are going better than mine!
We won’t be hosting Thanksgiving this year, but seeing so much inspiration on my favorite food blogs and websites has prompted this hypothetical menu. If I were hosting, this is probably what I would serve. Preparation time is way less than a typical Thanksgiving feast; it’s simple yet sophisticated, traditional and non-traditional all at the same time. My favorite part? There’s a food color scheme. And food color schemes rock my socks. [Is that normal?] I’m picturing this all on a minimalist, modern tablescape with lots of whites and touches of browns and creams.
[photo via Apartment Therapy]
[recipes: soup, turkey, string beans (or parsnips or white asparagus), mashed potatoes, gravy, dessert]
Scouting the web for Thanksgiving tablescape ideas, I came across this – and still haven’t recovered. Featured on Style Me Pretty and captured by Jose Villa, Jessica Claire’s wedding is a true feast for the eyes. Hands down, it’s the most beautiful harvest themed wedding I’ve ever seen! Not only is the table decor amazing and inspiring for your own gathering, but the colors and details woven throughout the entire wedding are jaw-droppingly gorgeous. These flower girls? Oh. My. Goodness.
[photos by Jose Villa featured by Style Me Pretty]
More details here, here, here, and here.
From red velvet cupcakes to living in a free country, there are countless things to be thankful for every day. But as Thanksgiving approaches, I once again feel like I was ungrateful the other 364 days of the year. So I started recording one reason for thanksgiving every morning and keeping it in mind throughout the day. Not only does it help provide perspective, but it usually makes it much easier to get out of bed on Monday mornings like this, when all I want to do is stay cocooned in my warm bed. I’m reeeally thankful for my warm bed. Ok, maybe this journaling thing doesn’t make it easy to get up every morning, but most of the time it works.
These little notebooks from Pawling Print Studio are perfect for gratitude journals. Love them!
Happy Monday!
How fun would these be for a modern Thanksgiving tablescape?
[by Owen Gildersleeve :: found via unruly things]
I draw letters and design stationery from my desk overlooking the treetops. This is where I journal bits of work and play.
