Thanksgiving recap + [Black] Friday Faves
Hi friends! Happy Friday! Hope you are having a wonderful morning. Hope that those of you who were celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday enjoyed a memorable holiday surrounded by those you love… and delicious food. 😉
We weren’t able to travel to Tucson since we needed to keep an eye on P’s reflux, so we enjoyed a Thanksgiving here in San Diego with our favorite little turkeys.
When we woke up, Liv said, “HAPPY THANKSGIVING!” and I promptly started gobbling at her. She said, “Only guys that have tattoos on their arms can gobble.” aka my brother Kyle is apparently the only one who is allowed gobbling rights. I taught him how to gobble haha.
We watched the parade in our jammies, and the Jess and her family came over for pancakes, eggs and mimosas.
The Pilot is the Pancake King. (He uses this recipe!)
To go along with the ‘cakes, I made an impromptu egg dish with sautéed zucchini, mushrooms, tomato and spinach,
seasoned with fresh thyme, dried oregano, garlic, salt and pepper,
poured 8 whisked eggs (with a little almond milk, salt and pepper) and topped with paprika before baking at 375 for about 40 minutes. It was really easy, and a savory complement to the rest of our sweet breakfast fare.
Slow cooker with oats (just oats, almond milk, cinnamon and vanilla), strawberry compote (frozen strawberries with vanilla and a little bit of sugar), and warmed maple syrup,
we also cooked up some bacon and turkey bacon,
and Jess brought a chili-lime fruit salad and mimosa supplies. It was quite the Thanksgiving breakfast feast. 🙂 The adults (+ P) hung out and chatted in the kitchen, while the girls played with Liv’s toys and ran around shrieking with laughter. In other words, it was absolutely perfect.
Love this girl so much. <3
After cleaning up from breakfast, we took a family walk down to the dog beach.
It was so cool to see the tables set up on the beach, surrounded by families, and topped with Thanksgiving meals and bottles of wine. <— doing Thanksgiving right.
Later that afternoon, we headed to Betsy’s house to enjoy a fantastic dinner with her family. There were a ton of kids running around, so Liv was totally happy, and Betsy made the full spread.
We’re so thankful for our amazing friends here in San Diego. When I called my mom last weekend to tell her that we were likely staying here for Thanksgiving, madre, who has a knack for saying exactly what I need to hear, said that it would be a great chance for us to not only get into a bit of a routine, but also to create some of our own traditions. She said that we’d look back and say, “Remember that one Thanksgiving when it was just the 4 of us? Wasn’t that so nice?” and it’s true. I think this will go down as one of our most memorable turkey days, still crawling through the newborn fog and enjoying some great memories with awesome friends.
This week made me realize something else, too:
I really do love to cook.
While I was pregnant, hardly anything sounded good to me and cooking was hit or miss. I would open the fridge and stare blankly inside, and didn’t feel the least inspired with meals and recipes, unless I was making a Blue Apron meal. I’m so glad some of that mojo is finally back! Wednesday night, I made a gluten-free stuffing and cranberry sauce, and while the aroma of sizzling onion and sage filled the house, I was like YES. I do love to cook! It was refreshing haha. Even though I’m not eating dairy because of P’s milk protein allergy, I feel inspired and excited to cook/eat again, so hopefully that means new recipes coming up on ye ol’ blog.
In standard Friday fashion, here are some faves from the week and around the web:
New Erin Condren planner is making me so excited for 2016.
PIECAKEN. I can’t even.
Los Feliz Daycare twitter account. This is always good for a laugh.
Cat gifs that summarize your workout pain.
Ordering a Snuza. Per many of your suggestions on this post for ways to get a little peace of mind and some sleep, I ordered a Snuza. It’s not here yet, but should be here in the next day or so. I’m grateful that gadgets like this exist.
These teeny boots.
Black Friday Sales are heeeeere!
Some of my faves:
Shopbop: up to 25% off with code “GOBIG15″
Macy’s: 20% off with code “THANKS”
Nordstrom: 40% off shoe brands for Cyber Monday
J Crew: 30% off + 40% off sale with code “HOLIDAY”
Anthropologie: 25% off everything with code “SHOPTOIT”
Tory Burch: 30% off when you spend $250 with code “THANKS”
Satya jewelry: 30% off with code “FRIDAY30″
Madewell: 25% off with code “CALMDOWN”
Old Navy: sweet online deals and 50% off in store. Liv, P and I blitzed through on Wednesday night, and I got them so many cute wintery clothes for a steal.
and fitness gifts — many with Black Friday prices:
So tell me friends: what was the best part about your Thanksgiving? Any crazy/funny holiday stories? Are you Black Friday shopping, or not so much?
xoxo
Gina
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Happy Thanksgiving! You and baby P have been on my mind. I do hope that things are getting better. It sounds like you have been through a rough time. Wishing you all good health & happiness 🙂
thank you, kirsten <3 sending lots of love to you, too!
So happy to hear you guys had a great Thanksgiving! It’s REALLY cold in Arizona (like 40’s) so being at the beach is much better right now!
ahhhh! definitely colder there than it is here 🙂 hope you had a great thanksgiving
P’s boots, I can’t even handle the cuteness! My first Erin Condren planner is being delivered today, I can’t wait!!
right?! so fun 🙂
you will LOVE it!
Wow, it sounds like you had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Your holiday breakfast spread looks SO good…I may need to make that egg casserole ASAP 😀 I’m glad you had such a fun day.
Ahhh thanks for posting all of those Black Friday promo codes! I don’t love hitting up the stores for BF, but shopping online at home today is going to be amazing…and possibly dangerous, lol!
haha same. i just love that i can do it in my jammies 😉
hope you had a great thanksgiving!
I didn’t have the chance to comment when you initially posted about P’s reflux issues but wanted to let you know my heart goes out to you. I went through the same thing with my second daughter and we tried everything without much luck. Seven years later I can still vividly remember all the tears, anxiety and sheer exhaustion. Thankfully by about 3.5 months she grew out of it. I won’t offer any additional advice as I know you’ve gotten lots of different tips but just wanted to say that hopefully this will be but a very small piece of P’s life that you will have to manage and get through. I hope that as was the case with my daughter, the reflux will just eventually stop and will become something you only think about when you hear other people with newborns going through the same thing. I know that is small comfort while you are going through it but it helped me to know that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, that lots of babies experience it, that they eventually get past it and thrive into wonderful, healthy and sweet little kids. Have a wonderful weekend!
Your madre is a WISE woman. What lovely and sage advice. It brought tears to my eyes.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your BEAUTIFUL family! Seriously, you all should model. It is so great to hear that your passion for cooking is resurfacing – it feels like re-uniting with an old friend right? You are amazing and special and awesome. Sending you all my love <3
I got a lot of really good deals at Gap! Lots of fitness finds that are going to be motivators when the weather gets freeeeeezing! I’m glad you enjoyed your Thanksgiving! We always have it just the 4 of us and it’s surprisingly nice and relaxing. Sometimes it’s nice to eat dinner in your sweats at whatever time the turkey decides to be done 🙂
Glad you enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving! Jealous of your time with Jess–she’s so sweet!
No Black Friday shopping for me. We did go to a holiday parade, firework show then to the Festival of Trees on Friday evening. We had a low-key Thanksgiving which was nice.
Those little boots! Children’s clothes are the CUTEST 🙂
That’s so good you’re in the cooking mood again, and that you’ve been able to realize how much you enjoy it. Sometimes it’s good to have that kind of a break to understand what things we want to keep doing in life (and which we don’t).
Aren’t moms the best? I’m sure yours was terribly disappointed that you guys weren’t coming, but she graciously said just the right thing & helped you get perspective on the whole situation. She’s a gem! Glad that your Thxgiving still turned out wonderful. 🙂
she’s the best <3
hope you had a great weekend, too!