Catch Up: Thanksgiving 2011

Throwing back to the crisp cool days of Autumn - here's my long delayed Thanksgiving post! Where was I?

My friend Laura, whom I've known since I was a freshman in high school, and went to college with, had come to NYC to spend Thanksgiving with me and Felipe. It was wonderful to have the time together - since we haven't had more than an hour here and there to hang out since college. Laura arrived on the Monday before thanksgiving (if I recall correctly) - but I had work all week. Thankfully Laura has done a lot of travel and is one independent gal and doesn't mind touring around on her own a bit. So during the week she went to a variety of touristy things (the tenement museum, Louis Armtrong's house, etc). On Wednesday night Felipe and I had an opera to go to, but I got out of work a bit early and went with Laura to see the Macy's balloons being inflated. She had plans to go to the parade itself - but I'm not one who's much for crowds like that, and I had cooking to do - so I went with her to see the balloons.

It was SUPER CROWDED!!! oh New York City, I shouldn't be surprised, it's a tradition for Thanksgiving. At least they were organized with how they allowed people to view the balloons. It was fun too to see them kind of "sleeping" on the ground before their big day.






After the balloons came back down to the apartment and I went to the opera with Felipe while Laura relaxed at home. She had to get up real early the next day - so relaxing was a good thing!

Thanksgiving day I did my usual prep and got the whole meal together. We don't get too fancy here - so I had the turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, and Laura made some terrific corn bread.



Sammi, Nicole and Mike joined us and we had a delicious dinner, played some games and just enjoyed the evening. And of course - we ate too much food...but not so much that there weren't left overs ;)

Happy Thanksgiving (yesterday)!

Nicole's taking a photo of the group of us...ravenous and ready to eat!

So Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I know, this post should have gone up yesterday, but then how would I have included the photos?! Plus...I spent the whole day preparing the meal, so yeah! We had a fantastic time with my mom, Cord, Nicole, Sammi and Mike - it's a meal and an evening I look forward to all year!


See me in the back there... Everyone did a good job of not digging in to the turkey before everything else was ready ;)


After dinner we entertained ourselves with games of Taboo, playing with Josie, and drinks!


And just before leaving us...Josie sat in the kitchen wishing for some left overs....


We had a wonderful day/evening, and I hope that all of you had as good a Thanksgiving as we did. I know that I am thankful to have my "Manhattan Family" to celebrate with, as well as having my mom out here too!

Thanksgiving 2009 - Part 2

So here we started, with the table set and ready for guests. I did a few preparations in the morning - cutting the celery and onion for the stuffing, preparing the green bean casserole, and making the mashed potatoes. The turkey went in to the oven at 1:30pm. I think I need a new food thermometer though - because every year when I put it in the turkey it never registers hot enough! at 6:30pm, the turkey was still reading at only 160 degrees (not the 180 you are supposed to have). Yet it had been in the oven for five hours (should have been plenty for an 11 lb turkey) and the juices were running clear! I took it out anyway and it was plenty done (although not dry!).

The food ready to go!


Ready to carve the turkey :D





And the group photos:




It was a wonderful night. I ate WAY too much, to which all of our friends can attest. And I was able to celebrate how thankful I am for all of our friends and for my family, and for all the other wonderful things I have in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pies from our first time hosting Thanksgiving - 2006

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! It surprises me how quickly it came this year, but I will enjoy it. Thanksgiving is, as I often say, my favorite holiday. It's a wonderful day that you can spend time with your family and friends, eat good food, enjoy a few games (we prefer board games, but football if you please!). There's no obligation or worry over gifts - we all know it's coming though!

Today we're hosting our closest friends, our New York City family, for dinner. It's a smaller gathering than years past, but I'm looking forward to it with as much excitement (and a little less preparation!).

Look for pictures from this years Thanksgiving tonight or tomorrow!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday with our friends here in New York City. We ended up being 10 people this year, and I made the biggest turkey yet. Our guests included our friends Nicole (for the first time!), Cord, Laurence and Sylvain, Laurence's parents, and Mike and Emily.

I was pretty busy cooking, so didn't get too many photos (I can't wait to see the ones that Sylvain took!). Here are a couple of pics from the place setting, I really enjoyed the preparation this year.