Thankgiving In The Mountains

This was the first time that Ian and I were together for Thanksgiving.  While we were dating and engaged, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas separately with our own families.  It has really been a fun adventure this year to learn about each others' family traditions.

Thankgiving this year was celebrated with Ian's mother and brother at their NC mountainhouse.  We got in Wednesday night and had fajitas and Skinnygirl Margaritas (well, my MIL and I did -- the boys had beer). 

Thursday morning, I headed straight to the kitchen after waking up and started on the two dishes that I was making - brussel sprouts sauteed with pancetta, and -- the dish I make for our family every year -- cranberry sauce.

There is nothing like hearing the cranberries pop open on your stovetop.  That to me is a favorite part of the holidays.

My MIL picked up a bouquet of flowers and asked me to arrange them.  I added in some clippings from the backyard of rhododendron, ferns, and other greenery to put it together in a basket.

We took a break from cooking and I headed down to the stream with Ian, his brother, and their family's dogs.

You can't really tell from the above photo, but my Thanksgiving day ensemble consisted of black boots with black LEGGINGS, a soft stretchy shirt from Anthropologie in a pretty eggplant color, and a comfy thigh-length oatmeal sweater from Old Navy (bought the other weekend when all sweaters were 75% off -- I got this one for about $13).  The outfit was strategically planned as I knew I wanted to be in leggings.  Elastic waistbands, people.  The best.

Upon returning to the house, I put together this appetizer plate with deviled eggs made by my MIL along with olives and cornichons.

And right before we headed into the dining room, we noticed someone already had reserved his place.

He's smart.  He knew where the good stuff was going to be.

Dinner was delicious.  We had turkey, a Honeybaked ham, cranberry sauce, gravy, salad, brussel sprouts, sweet potato casserole, corn, broccoli, collard greens, biscuits, hmmmm -- am I leaving anything out?  And did I mention we only had 4 people?

We had a bottle of sparkling rose and also a cabernet.  And for dessert, pumpkin pie AND chocolate pecan pie!  Yes, I had some of both.  Duh.

On Black Friday we steered very clear of Walmart and Target, but we did hit up the nearby outlets.  I bought a few things for myself (whoopsies) and also found this great ivory sleeveless down vest at Banana Republic that has a removeable hood with faux fur trim.  It is BEYOND cute.  Ian bought it for me as a Christmas gift.  Waiting for it for almost a month is going to be tough!