Where to start?! Over the past few days we enjoyed some really delicious food, great company, and lots of laughter. In one word, Thanksgiving 2013 was memorable!
Thanksgiving Day
I woke up bright and early on Thursday and headed straight to the kitchen to start cooking since I was in charge of the food for the day. My aunt, uncle, cousin, and his little girl were coming over around noon, and I wanted everything to be ready by then.
Our lunch spread mirrored our Friendgiving feast except for a few changes. I made whipped sweet potatoes, mac n’ cheese, quinoa salad (more nuts, no greens, same dressing), corn muffins from a box, cranberry sauce, and baked chicken for the meat eaters. Lots of good eats!
A bit later in the afternoon, my parents, sister, and I headed to the theater to watch the new Bollywood movie Ram Leela. If you’ve seen it already, please leave a comment telling me what you thought. Personally, I liked a few aspects of it but found it to be a big disappointment overall. It just didn’t live up to the hype!
We ended our day with a little Black Friday shopping. We (minus my dad) went to the mall, shopped in exactly 3 stores, and came home. All of this took 4 hours – the lines were ridiculous! Even though we found some great deals, I don’t think I’ll be doing it again. Not quite my thing.
FRIDAY
On Friday morning, I woke up, worked out, and headed to Tina’s place to pick her up for our donut date! Tina and I went to high school together and reconnected via our blogs. Since she still lives in Atlanta, I contacted her to see if she had time for a meet-up. After a few emails, we realized that she lives in the neighborhood next to my parents’. Small world, huh!?
Anyways, we drove over to Dutch Monkey Doughnuts, where we both picked the chocolate cake donut with peanut butter filling (perfection!) and caught up on life since high school. We talked about our blogs, Best Body Bootcamp, family, and other random things. It was so fun seeing Tina after all these years. I’m hoping we can meet up again next time I’m in town and hopefully get more ATL bloggers to join us (ahem, Laura!).
Later in the evening, Vishnu and his family came over for dinner (Thanksgiving part 2). My mom prepared some delicious curries, including saag paneer (spinach with cubed paneer cheese), daal makhani (lentils), and chole (chickpeas). The saag paneer was my favorite. It was spicy with a hint of sweetness, and the soft cheese added the perfect bite. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
And what dinner party is complete without dessert? Not ours! My mother-in-law’s apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream were the perfect ending to our spicy meal.
After saying good-bye to my parents and sister, we headed back to Vishnu’s house where I spent the rest of the weekend.
SATURDAY
After lounging around for a bit, we headed to the mall to do some window shopping…or so I thought. My MIL had other plans, as evidenced by the Michael Kors watch I got as an early Christmas present! Truthfully, I had never even stepped inside a Michael Kors’ store before, so this was a treat!
Once we were all shopped out, we made our way to CPK for dinner. I was adamant that the Tostada pizza be one of the three we order. And guess what? It was the favorite by far. Go me! AND go UGA!!! We made it to the restaurant in time to catch the last 45 minutes of the game. It was nail biter for sure.
SUNDAY
Our flights back to Miami weren’t until the late afternoon, so we spent Sunday morning talking and hanging out around the house. After eating lunch, Vishnu’s brother dropped us off at the airport. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to book us on the same flight, which meant that I was still in Atlanta when Vishnu’s plane landed in Fort Lauderdale. We finally made our way back to Miami around 10:30 pm. Talk about a long travel day!
Now I’m just getting everything ready for my trip to London (I leave on Friday!). I honestly can’t believe that 2014 is right around the corner! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat???
2013 FAMILY PICTURES (don’t ask why we didn’t take one big family picture!)
How was your Thanksgiving holiday? Tell me all about the fooooooood!
