Turkey Day

Another Thanksgiving goes by without actually eating turkey. Even when I made the turkey for our FG Thanksgiving Feast in New York I never tried it. I'm a strange bird, I know.

We had about 26 people over to my parent's house today. Most everyone brought something and I signed up to do an appetizer (thanks for the recipe, Al). It's so simple: brie with the top cut off, topped with cranberries, walnuts and thyme baked at 350 for 20 minutes or so. Go for it.

My Uncle Hunter grilled venison that he killed last weekend and I actually tried a small bite. I think I overheard my cousin say, "We go for Bambi" and I was done after that. Here are some of the men grilling:

Oh cousins!
How I love them!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm packing up and about to head home for Thanksgiving! This has to be one of my favorite weeks out of the year. I love hanging out with my family and us cousins can be kinda crazy so I'll leave you with this video from last Thanksgiving. Case in point...

All about the Mar

Last week I went to Mar's school for their Thanksgiving feast. I'm a little biased, but I think she is the cutest girl in the whole world.

I love this picture of her!

I would hate for you to think that I only post pictures of the children all calm and collected, so here's a little bit of real life for ya:

Home

It was a wonderful weekend. I took the boyfriend up to Oak Ridge to meet my sisters and soon-to-be brother-in-law. (He had already met my parents a month ago in Charlotte.) It was a perfect day. We watched football, went for a walk, ate yummy food, and just spent time together.

He also met Petals (the dog) and Zuzu (the cat).
And he puts up with my silliness. :)
There's Gin & Jeff. Oh! We also took a tour of Gray Gables, where they're getting married in the spring!

Ok, so, when bf picked me up on Saturday he told me to close my eyes and turn around. He then surprised me with Chucks! He has two pairs and I've been debating for months whether to get the black or grey. What a guy!!

Picture of the day

I love and miss my NYC family!

Weekend Update

I had such an amazing weekend. Actually a lot of it involved food, but that's ok because I love to cook & bake on "home days", as Margot calls them.

Friday night I picked up pizza for MK & myself. We each sat on a couch and found an endearing Hallmark movie to watch. By 10pm we were out. Lame? No, awesome! Sometimes I'm so exhausted on a Friday night that I just have to go to bed early.

We all got up on Saturday morning for pumpkin ebelskiver pancakes with pecans inside. Yum. It happens every two months or so that all three of us are home and we have a leisurely breakfast together. Afterwards, I sat on the couch reading and listening to Christmas music. :)

The boyfriend came over and we made this amazing homemade mac & cheese with bacon for an event we had later that night. Ohh it was so good. Then we went to his house and walked for 5 miles in his neighborhood. It was a perfect day for a walk as the trees in Charlotte are gorgeous! That night we went to our church for Operation Christmas Child box night, where you pack up boxes of treats, games and toys to send to kids all over the world. Cait and I made a little box for a baby girl and this is our friend Matt who did a box for a boy.


One of the best parts about the weekend was watching the Gamecock football game Saturday night. Bf went to grad school at USC and is a huge fan. I just knew they were going to win. He was sure they weren't. But I was right!

Sunday was church and then about 5 different friends stopped by later that afternoon to visit or just say hi. I love that! I love when friends come over! I made this cranberry lime muffin cake, thanks to Teaberries and then made a yummy linguine dish. Last night I went over to bf's and guess what we watched... the DUKE game!! Yeah, 'tis the season!

All in all, it was one of the best weekends I've had here this fall. Thanks for reading the play-by-play. Now, have a great week!

Oh, and this is us on the couch because our house is FREEZING!!

Me + kids + a mac = fun

City skyline

Since yesterday was Veterans Day, my bf (!) and I explored Uptown Charlotte since we had the morning free. We parked where he works and saw the view of Charlotte from the top of the parking garage. Beautiful! After living in NYC, I LOVE a good rooftop view. We walked to the Light Factory photography exhibit and then to Dean & Deluca for coffee. Walked some more and then headed to Metropolitan for really good sushi. It was definitely a wonderful city day.

Retreats, friends and bears, oh my!

This past weekend we had a women's retreat in the mountains of North Carolina, mainly Black Mountain. I had to work late, so I drove up on Friday night by myself. It was so dark outside and I was about a mile from the lodge when I saw a huge bear cross the street. It was enormous. I've never seen anything that big. Huge. Had I been 10 seconds sooner I would've hit it and the thing would've opened my car and eaten me somehow. I'm very thankful that was not the case. I might be talking about this bear for a while. I still can't get over it.

Ok, so not sure why I forgot to take more pictures than this one on the last day, but here are my friends Jenni, Misty and Jessica. We were on the planning committee and it was fun to spend time with them that weekend.


Actually one of my favorite things about the weekend was having coffee with my NYC friend Pam! She was home for the weekend so we met at a coffee shop to catch up, and for me to get my NYC "fix". I can't tell you how wonderful it is to catch up with good friends!!


I think I was talking to Al, so I was on the phone and driving when I took this picture. I didn't get as many of the fall colors as I'd liked, but this gives you an idea of my beautiful drive home.

Halloweekend

It was a great Halloween weekend! I helped the kids get ready, which meant I was both sewing costumes and fighting off the masses at Party City, a place I will now avoid at the end of October. Wil-man was a gangsta, which fit him! So cute!

I went to a Halloween party on Saturday night which was a lot of fun. It was one of the first "feels like NYC" parties I've been to here in Charlotte. I was a cat again. So boring, I know.
This is me & my friend Christine.

Here's our dear little Manor home. I love this tree, and the pumpkin & mums on the porch. It is a happy fall, indeed!