Thanksgiving Recap

My first Thanksgiving cooking the whole meal went surprisingly well. The day started off early. AJ had to work a half day so we were up at 6 and he was gone by 7. I took a little time in the morning to journal. I wanted to ensure that I would get to record what I was thinking and feeling on our first Thanksgiving here and together as a married pair.

I started preparing in the kitchen by 9 as a the parade started. I also called my mom and sister in Connecticut to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving and for a bit of cooking advice! Then at 10, I watched the Friends Thanksgiving marathon on my laptop because I couldn't decide between that and the parade! I'm sure I wasn't the only one with that dilemma.

I made mashed turnips, cranberry sauce, and gravy on the stove top early so I could just reheat it all when it was about time to eat. At 11:30, I put our turkey breast in the oven. I ended up ordering a pre-stuffed breast from Whole Foods so that I wouldn't have to worry about doing my own stuffing. It was tiny, little 3.5 pound breast and perfect for just us! I assumed the turkey would take 1.5-2 hours to cook but when I checked it around 12:30, it looked pretty cooked! So then I started to rush. AJ got home right around that time and I hadn't yet started the brussels sprouts or sweet potato casserole! I had already mashed the sweet potatoes and put them in a baking dish so I quickly put that in the oven with the turkey and started to sauté the sprouts with garlic and turkey bacon. Before it got too dry, I took the turkey out of the oven and covered it with tin foil and a dishtowel to keep it warm while I started reheating everything on the stove. I threw some pecans and marshmallows on the casserole and set the oven to broil. AJ helped put everything into serving dishes, opened the wine, and got the turkey onto a serving dish. But before we could eat, of course, we had to get a few photos of the table.

As we sat down to eat, AJ suggested we listen to Christmas music—which made me so happy because I love Christmas music but AJ usually does not like it until Thanksgiving is all said and done! He knows the way to my heart.

We had a nice midday dinner around 1. We ate and talked, had seconds and drank wine. After eating, we left all the dishes on the table and took a nice walk through the Common. It was a beautiful afternoon, chilly and cloudy but no wind! There were a few other people who had the same idea as us, but the city was very quiet! The Common is already decorated for Christmas and it looked beautiful! We walked down Joy Street to Mount Vernon Street and then home. We cleaned the dishes and put away leftover before taking out the dessert and pouring coffee. I think I stuffed myself the most with dessert! We didn't have pie this year, but we had chocolate chip pumpkin blondie bars and pecan bars. We watched football and then started taking out some Christmas decorations. We were slightly surprised by the fake tree we got. It's maybe 3 feet tall and completely looks like a Charlie Brown tree, which is a bit endearing really. And some how the strand of lights I got for is still not big enough! So we left that to decorate until I get more lights but we did string some white lights over our window and it looks like Christmas!

Today, we woke up to a bit of snow outside and it flurried for part of the morning. Later, I'm going to brave the crowds to do a bit of shopping...but if the lines are long or the stores are super crowded I will turn around and come home! I'm not big into Black Friday crowds.



I hope everyone had a wonderful, enjoyable Thanksgiving. I hope everyone was able to spend time with family and the people they love, that is what this time of year is all about!

A Successful Day Off

Wednesdays are my day off from babysitting. I like to take advantage of them and fit in as many fun things and activities possible.

Yesterday I started the day early, drinking coffee with my mom on the porch. At 9:30, I met my cousin Maria for a Zumba class which completely exhausted both of us and made us feel sadly out of shape.

From there, we drove to Orange to a store called Plato's closet. They buy and sell clothes and I had a suitcase full of clothes I've been wanting to try to sell for months. We dropped off the clothes and headed to the nearest Whole Foods for an early lunch which happened to be one of the yummiest lunches I've had in a while.

I take the girls I babysit to Whole Foods once a week, usually, and I tend to stick to the salad bar because there are so many options, I get overwhelmed and fall back on the familiar. This Whole Foods, though, was a bit more spread out and it was pretty empty so I didn't feel rushed to pick something. We took our time walking around, looking at the options before deciding what to get. Also, this has got be the cleanest and most well kept Whole Foods I've been to. Usually, the hot food bar and salad bar get messy and aren't correctly labeled and such but this store had so many more options than I've seen before and each section was filled and looked fresh.

I gravitated towards the hot food bar and filled my container with a little spring greens salad with walnuts and goat cheese, then I added a piece of herbed chicken along with steamed broccoli, summer squash, and zucchini. On the side, I had to add the grilled pineapple and grilled peaches (something else I've never seen at the Whole Foods closer to me) and it was all delicious! It was a bit pricey for lunch but it kept me very full for a long time and it all tasted great.

We went back to Plato's Closet and the store only took 4 out of my many, many items but they gave me $18. Not much, but better than nothing!

From there, we drove to New Canaan to visit my mom at her volunteer job at the thrift store and we ended up shopping more than we meant to! I got a cute Lilly Pulitzer dress for around $30 among other things. They have such great steals! The sale special for that day was one bag of clothes for $25!

I ended the night at the beach in Norwalk with my mom and some family, looking out at the water and listening to the ABBA tribute band that was performing. The weather was beautiful all day and night, it was perfect for an evening at the beach.

Today, I'm back to babysitting and the Westport Library and Farmers' Market are on our schedule for the day!