What We Ate for Thanksgiving

Good morning! Just popping in today to hope you all had a great Thanksgiving including lots of time with friends and family, lots of laughter, and of course lots of yummy food! I wanted to share with you guys what we ate for Thanksgiving this year, and would love to hear what you all did!

We had Thanksgiving this year with our landlord. Not your usual Thanksgiving plan, but we've become such good friends with our landlord, Barbara, and her family. My only thing to make this year was scalloped potatoes, which I'd never made by myself before, but I'm always willing to try something new.

We started the eating endeavors at around 1:00 with some mimosas and peach bellinis, and sat around talking and watching the end of a football game. Don't ask me which football teams were playing...I'm usually not paying one ounce of attention when a game is on.

At 1:30, we gathered around the table for the first course. Barbara had made a big antipasto platter with all types of cured meat and parmesan cheese, bib lettuce, boiled eggs, and such. Also on the table were lobster stuffed mushrooms (mmmmm!), olives, fresh olive bread and jalapeno cheddar bread, deviled eggs, and a 2010 Chianti wine (which is apparently a good year for Chianti...which, it was!).          

After the first course, we sat around talking, trying to find something fun to watch on TV and ending on Austin Powers. Yeah, not a fan of that movie with just the few snippets here and there that I've watched. But being together and letting the first course digest a little was nice. Then we went outside for a little bit, I threw a tennis ball for Sadie (our dog) and let her fetch it, and enjoyed some fresh air.

Next, the main course. We had a huge spread for the 8 people around the table, including sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, steamed artichokes, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes, and of course turkey with cranberry sauce. Oh, and last minute I decided to make macaroni and cheese because that's Paul's "must-have" at Thanksgiving. Sadly, it only turned out "all right". But everything else...DELICIOUS! .     

I had a little bit of everything on the table except for mashed potatoes because I'm not a huge fan. It was the first time I tried artichokes prepared whole and I was pleasantly surprised how amazing they were...that is, once I realized you're not supposed to eat the entire leaf and are supposed to just suck on it. That was laughing stock for the whole table!

After the meal, we all went around and said what we were thankful for, which, for Paul and I is so special and important. It was so wonderful to hear from everyone and stop what we are doing to really focus on why we're gathered and eating this food in the first place.

Lastly, we ended with pie...an apple crumb pie, a banana cream pie, and a pumpkin pie. I had a little sliver of each along with some espresso. And to finish up the night, we sat in the living room and hung out while watching Impractical Jokers.

We had a great Thanksgiving. One thing I always have to remind myself is that Thanksgiving is not about me, it's about those I'm with and remembering all that I'm blessed with. Sometimes I find myself with certain expectations of what the day should be like. And sometimes it goes as I imagine, but most times it doesn't. And that's ok! Because, again, this is a meal we share with a greater purpose, and I'm far more blessed than I deserve, and humbled with what I have in this life.

And one thing I'm surely grateful for this year was being able to eat free of any guilt or negative thoughts. Yes, I was a little uncomfortably full after the meal. But that's ok! And no, I don't plan on "making up" for what calories I ate yesterday through extra exercise or restriction in any way. Today will be a day of eating "normally" for my body, listening to what I crave, and being neutral around foods. What a freeing place this is!

What did you eat for Thanksgiving?

Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving! I'd love to see or hear what you had for Thanksgiving too! You can comment below, or post to Instagram with the tag #gratefulnessnotguilt.