Thanksgiving Weekend

Alright, I know this recap is WAAAAY overdue, but I didn’t want to not do it and skip over what a great weekend it was!

Just a few days before Thanksgiving, it dawned on me that this was going to be my first Turkey Day with family for the first time in FOUR years! It made me a little giddy just to think about it. For Thanksgiving, the plan was to go over to my uncle’s house for dinner with Mister E where my two cousins, my two cousin’s daughters, and another uncle would be. Later in the evening I would transition over to my mom’s cousin’s house where several other cousins (second cousins? cousins once removed?) would be.

The morning started off hectic at 6 a.m. as I frantically got myself ready and prepared my butternut squash and acorn squash (the two side dishes my uncle put me in charge of). My original plan was to leave my house at 11 a.m. to start driving to my uncle’s house in the New Haven area, but thanks to a head’s up from Caitlin, I realized my street was going to be shut down early in the morning for a Turkey Trot race. This necessitated the madness to get everything ready early so I could leave my house by 8:30 a.m.

It might be a little horrendous that someone who categorizes herself as somewhat of a food blogger didn’t take any food pictures at all on the biggest food holiday of the year! I was so caught up in the moment of being with family that I didn’t want to disrupt anything by having to awkwardly take pictures of my dinner plate. Suffice it to say, the food was delicious.

Of course the real highlight of the day was getting to play with these two munchkins:

My cousin’s eldest daughter had just turned eight years old a few days prior to Thanksgiving, so instead of doing a traditional dessert of apple or pumpkin pie, we capped dinner off with birthday cake! (Some of us where a little neater than others while eating.)

 

After the birthday cake, I made my way over to my mom’s cousin’s house and was greeted with lots of family members to hug. Thankfully, I arrived just in time for their dessert course and happily accepted a piece of pumpkin pie to work my way through.

(photo courtesy of Crystal, my mom’s cousin’s wife – second cousin-in-law?)

I wasn’t planning on staying for too long, but of course, plans don’t mean much during the holidays. It was so easy getting caught up in the conversation and I stayed out much later than I anticipated. It was so worth it though!

Unlike last year, I didn’t have any Black Friday shopping plans, so I relished the opportunity to sleep in on Friday morning. Still feeling a little “stuffed” from all the food the day before, I kept breakfast on the lighter side, but still decadent, with a pumpkin pie smoothie.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

• 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup milk (regular, almond, soy, etc.)
• 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (could use cinnamon as an alternative)
• 6 ice cubes
• pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon sticks for garnish

Directions:  In a blender, combine together yogurt, pumpkin, milk, pumpkin pie spice, and ice cubes. Pour into glasses and garnish with additional pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon sticks. Makes two small servings (snack size) or one large serving (meal size).

By the late morning, the allure of a good bargain got the best of me and I ventured out to the mall to check out the Black Friday sales. It was a relief to see that the mall wasn’t too chaotic and I found that I could easily navigate my way through quite a few stores with little stress. I’m also happy to report that I managed to not buy anything for myself and only bought items that will be Christmas gifts for others.

Well, I guess there is one exception. I did buy an artificial Christmas tree for my apartment that was on sale at Target (but home decor doesn’t really count as buying something for myself, right?). This is my very first year putting up my own tree and it makes such a difference with putting me in the holiday spirit!

The tree came pre-light, so the most difficult part of setting up the tree was arranging the branches to try and make it look as full as possible. I would have loved to have put up a real tree, however, since I’ll be travelling over the holidays, it didn’t make much sense to get a tree that I wouldn’t be able to care for while I was gone.

After getting the tree fully decorated, I got to work on putting out some other decorations that I had been working on earlier in the week (I was so sad to have to pack my beautiful pumpkins away!).

  

I’ll probably do a short recap later on in the week about how I made my winter decorations even though they’re mostly very straightforward.

My other large accomplishment for the weekend was to finally put some finishing touches on my living room by hanging up some pictures and putting up curtains! These two tasks have been on my to-do list for FOREVER so it felt great to finally complete them. Young House Love says that installing curtains is the easiest thing you can do to revamp a room and they are so right! My apartment is finally starting to feel more like a home rather than just a space that I rent out.

Of course no Thanksgiving weekend would be complete without the famed leftovers! My uncle had sent me home with plenty of leftovers from our dinner and I was more than ready to put them in a sandwich form just like last year.

For those that are too lazy to click over to last year’s sandwich, the basic concept is to create a turkey melt using up several leftovers. The secret ingredient is a spinach pesto sauce (this year, I made my pesto using walnuts instead of pecans since that’s what I had on hand).

Also in the sandwich was a hefty slice of turkey breast, cranberry sauce, butternut squash, baby spinach, and sharp cheddar cheese. I used my favorite yoga bread which is filled with cranberries and pumpkin seeds so it complimented all the other flavors very nicely.

And because I can’t resist, here’s a link to the video of the infamous Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich from Friends!

The rest of my weekend was spent relaxing and also hanging out with one of Mister E’s close friends from college. Even though I’m usually restless by the Sunday evening on a long weekend, going back to work on Monday is always such a challenge! I have to keep reminding myself that there are only a few short weeks left before my vacation for Christmas and New Years.

The countdown is ON!

Again, I know that I’m late to the game, but does anyone have any good Black Friday deals that they want to share?

Even though most retail stores were offering 40-50% off on most items, I found that things were still quite expensive (i.e. a sweater was still $40 after the applied discount – I don’t like paying more than $40 for a sweater at full price!)

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