Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures

I went through my archives today and realized that I have gone for the last two years without posting about Thanksgiving. I guess it’s not too surprising because we haven’t really done it and that tends to weird people out.

Let’s clear the air: for the last two years, Eric and I celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home and ordering Indian food. We do order LOTS of Indian food, but besides that it is pretty far from what most people consider a Thanksgiving feast. I usually have a store-bought pumpkin pie because Eric is partial to them. But that’s about as far as it goes.

I’m not doing all that cooking for just us. We don’t have any family nearby. And Eric’s never been able to get time off to travel. (Not that we would travel that week anyway. Yikes.) It’s turned into something I quite enjoy, actually. I was even looking forward to it this year.

But instead we actually had a traditional Thanksgiving thanks to an invite from Kim at The Girl Is a Mom. Which is a great symbol of what this year has been for me. I have not just blog friends, I feel like I have a real community of people. The first time that’s happened to me as an adult.

I rarely went home for Thanksgiving while I was in school, so I haven’t really had lots of grown-up Thanksgivings and going to celebrate with Kim’s family was a treat. Her kids are close in age to my kids. Her food was awesome. (She gives some Thanksgiving tips on her blog and I recommend you take them if you had trouble this year because she rocked it.) Her gravy was perhaps the best I’ve ever had.

It was an adorable and picturesque Thanksgiving, too. Thanks to the littles who all had their cute turned up to 11.

Well, there was also Miss Tesser, who did an amazing job of eating Kim’s Sweet Potato and Turnip Gratin… until she didn’t.

We’ve been doing self-feeding and she’s been very slow to catch on. She still rarely actually swallows food. For a while she was doing incredibly well and really seemed to like the food. And then, well, she treated everyone at the table to a symphony of gags as she tried to work on her swallowing technique.

Many thanks to Kim and family for their patience and refusal to be disgusted by the baby who kept puking at the table. We’ll have to work on her manners before next year.

On Friday Graham and I set off into the world to get my anniversary-birthday-Christmas-everything-else-for-the-rest-of-your-life present.

Yes, now when I get a press or media invite I won’t be taking crappy pictures on my phone.

On Saturday I set out into the city to take some pictures… and to teach my friend Lexi about the ways of the world. (The fact that she’s coming to me for this stuff may not be a point in her favor.)

I still don’t quite have the hang of Night Mode, but I’m pretty happy with how they turned out given it was my first camera outing. Faneuil Hall was all dressed up for me.

Lexi and I had one of those epic girls nights. Not the kind where you drink yourself into oblivion. But the kind where you almost forget you have kids.

We stayed at the Financial District Hilton downtown thanks to Priceline. I’d kind of figured that a girls overnight trip would be out of our budget, but we got a fantastic price and were able to keep things pretty cheap. (If you’re local to Boston, loads of hotels are having great sales for the next few weeks. You’ll be shocked at how great the rates are.) The guy at the Hilton even comped our breakfasts when he heard my epic tale of how I used to be a big Hilton Honors person when I traveled for business but that I’ve been a lowly blue member for the last 6 years or so. Or maybe it was just that Lexi and I have that much charm.

The hotel was beautiful, just a couple blocks from Faneuil Hall and an abundance of bars. We skipped any that had ironic names or had bouncers with ponytails or had lines of girls in short skirts waiting to get in. Yes, we are moms.

Also we are the lame, cheap people who order salads so we can sit at a table and drink because we are too old and tired to fight for a spot at the bar.

I know that big one is blurry, but I love it. Because even though Lexi’s face is turned away you can still see how happy she is. A winter night in Boston, an Irish pub, some music, lots of talking, it was pretty darn perfect.

We enjoyed our kid-free night. Our kids were still alive when we came back. All in all, a big success.

Today it was strange getting Graham ready for school. And it’s kind of strange writing a blog post. It was a weekend so long that it started to feel like a new way of life. Luckily I’m pretty okay with normal.

And, to make today extra special, I am going to take a shower. (The fact that this is an event lets you know that we really are back to reality.)