An overdue post about Thanksgiving (and other randomness).

Riverside Park

I really have been meaning to get on here for a week now to post about our Thanksgiving in NYC...but...exhaustion has overtaken me. These days I am lucky if I manage to shower much less compose eloquent blog posts (or emails, or etsy orders (which are starting to roll in for the holiday season) or cleaning or working, etc.). In addition to Miles' multiple awakenings throughout the night now (growth spurt??), my tired body has decided to give up on the idea of sleep all together, it seems. The last few nights I've had a horribly frustrating case of insomnia in between all of his feedings. Ugh...

Anyway, Thanksgiving! This year was my first first Thanksgiving in the city and I am so glad we decided to stay put. We hosted Dan's mom and a good friend and shared a lovely meal together (mostly made by Dan's mom). Miles wasn't quite sure what to make of our feast. He'll stick to milk, thankyouverymuch:

Staying in the city also gave us the opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do: go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Inflation! It happens in our 'hood on the eve of Thanksgiving, and so despite the rainy, chilly weather, we decided to bundle Miles up and take him out for a real New York experience.

A very cool experience that I would highly recommend :)

P.S. new prints for sale in my etsy shop! (the original pieces were featured in the Art + Music show in Boston that I talked about here and here). More prints to come soon!

Snapshots from the 4th.

  

 

Hope you had a wonderful long weekend! We had a lovely 4th here in steamy Boston, spent with friends over a leisurely (air-conditioned!) dinner in Beacon Hill, followed by fireworks on the Charles River, which we watched from the Longfellow Bridge. I was pretty pooped after the heat and all the walking/standing, but it was definitely worth it to be out and about on such fun, buzzy night in Boston.

Mother's Day Weekend.

blue Virginia skies on Mother's Day

Just back from a lovely (surprise!) visit to Virginia for Mother's Day. The look on my mom's face was priceless when I walked in on Saturday morning, fresh off a plane from Boston. So glad the plan/surprise was a success! Dan, sadly, had to stay behind to finish up his final papers, but I was able to get in some good quality time w/ mom (shopping, lunching, chatting...all the good stuff :) and we had a wonderful time on Sunday with family and some of their friends, brunching and enjoying the beautiful Virginia countryside at some local wineries (well, I was an observer for the winery part). Oh, and the weather was dreamy all weekend. Another fun surprise was Dan sneaking a Mother-to-be Mother's Day card into my suitcase! So surreal to open my very own Mother's Day card...melted me a little!  

mother, daughter and baby bump!

Happy (day-after) Valentine's Day!

 rose petals served with dinner at Tangierino

Hope it was a lovely one for you! This was our first Valentine's Day together *not* spent in Santa Fe, NM with family. But all in all, our Boston-style V-Day was quite lovely. Firstly, the weather decided to cut us a break with some beautiful, 50 degree temps and sunshine. Bliss. Then, after a full and busy day of classes and errand-running, we headed out for dinner at a beautiful restaurant in Charlestown* that absolutely dripped romance, complete with scattered rose petals, red walls, low-lighting and yummy Moroccan food (Dan's pick :). A wonderful evening.  

*Charlestown is a great little neighborhood of Boston with charming, historic row houses lining quaint gas-lit streets. 

Thanksgiving Recap.

thanksgiving, 2010

There is so much to report on, between Thanksgiving and a full & lovely weekend away, that there is no way this one little post can suffice. So I'll have to tackle this in several posts, I think.

First up: Thanksgiving. It feels so long ago now since so much traveling & such has taken place since then. But it was a really great Thanksgiving. One of the best. (of course, last year was full of family & friends & laughter and was pretty darn fun. and the year before that we were in London getting engaged, which is also tough to beat. so let's just say this one was up there). 

Since it was just the two of us, we could pretty much decide how & when to do things, which felt lovely & relaxing. So we watched the parade in our jammies in front of the fire. Then watched the dog show and admired/laughed at all the classy/silly pups, all the while promising we'd get to work on the food soon. Then finally the cooking began and I managed to churn out my first apple pie (!), while we divided & conquered the rest of the menu: sweet potato casserole, stuffing, veggies, mashed potatoes and, of course, the (pre-cooked) turkey. 

apple pie innards 

We set the table with candles and dug into our mini-feast around 6 pm. It was delish and Dan & I felt so proud of our holiday spread (especially the pie :) 

the final result. yum. 

Overall, it was such a low-key & sweet day. Which was just what we wanted/needed... 

& up tomorrow: i will talk about one (1) amazing weekend, one (1) amazing wedding and how i fell in love with charleston, sc.  stay tuned. 

Thanksgiving Eve.

Faneuil Hall Market Place

Another shot of the marketplace where I'll be selling my work. Yes, I'm still excited :)

And now here we are on the eve of Thanksgiving. The fire is going and the tv is on and we are in full vaca-mode. Tomorrow, it's just the two of us up here in Cambridge -- our first Thanksgiving on our own! And the first Thanksgiving that I will attempt to cook a feast (a mini-feast, really, with a pre-cooked half turkey and a bunch of sides). But still! An important attempt none the less :) The rest of the weekend includes the wedding of a dear friend (hooray!) and catching up with friends. A perfect way to spend a holiday weekend. 

I may get on here again, but maybe not. If not, have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Happy Monday.

tulips on third avenue
We were back to New York late last night after a very full, very fun, very family-oriented weekend in the DC area. Starting in Northern Virginia with my family then ending in Maryland with Dan's family, we accomplished a lot of that celebrating I mentioned in the last post, all while soaking up some PERFECT Spring weather.

Here are some shots from the weekend (there were more I wanted to share ~ and with fancier formatting ~ but my computer is NOT cooperating & keeps freezing up & shutting down on me):

(the parents to be ~ my brother & sister-in-law)
(my cousin Lauren & me at the shower)
(us in our Easter finery)

celebrations.

the upper west side ~ a snapshot of my day yesterday
speaking of yesterday (specifically, the buds), things are reeeeally in full bloom down here (down here meaning virginia, where we just arrived this evening. did i mention this? we are in virginia with family for the weekend celebrating all sorts of things. easter, babies (my brother & sister-in-law are having a baby! i am going to be an auntie!!), birthdays, etc.). anyway, everywhere you look things are blooming & sprouting & growing -- dogwood tree flowers, tulips, little leaves. everything looks so fresh & bright & springy. AND it's supposed to be in the 80's all weekend. the 80's!! which i so need right now -- still thawing out from all the cold NYC rain of late.

with all this celebrating, it might be hard to get on here again, so i think i will take tomorrow off. but i'll be back with (hopefully) lots of fun photos of the baby shower we're having & easter and the blooming flowers & all the rest.

have a beautiful easter & a very happy weekend!

Happy St. Patty's!

Manhattan's shades of green