Let's Talk Turkey.

Due to my extremely busy schedule (read:laziness) I haven't posted yet on Thanksgiving. And while I know most of you have moved on to Christmas, I have to recap what an amazing Thanksgiving I had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the second year, we drove up to Boston to spend time with my brother-in-law James, his wife Marne, and their three little munchkins Olivia, Bowen, and Jane. With four chefs, we divided up the cooking and all agreed it was the absolute easiest Thanksgiving we had ever experienced. And everything was delicious! I'll spare you the blow-by-blow, but highlights included the free range organic turkey, cornbread, stuffing, and Layne's bacon wrapped shrimp. 

We also ran a 5k the morning of Thanksgiving. And by ran, I mean I walked and Layne ran the whole thing! He seriously damaged his ankle and has been limping around ever since, but he killed his previous best. I am SO proud! 

On the way home, we stopped in NYC. It was a quick trip since Layne was on crutches, but so much fun! We hit up Santaland in Macy's and checked out a lot of store windows. We went to "Peter Pan and the Starcatcher" - super cute. We also hit up Junior's for cheesecake again, and stopped in the Italian District where we picked up a cannoli and some some other special treats. In all, we bought dessert from three separate places. #fatties

(But isn't getting fat the whole point of Thanksgiving?)

Layne's Birthday Week

I apologize for the EXTREME tardiness of this post. I'll try to get back on track in coming days. 


We are BIG into birthdays at our place. So even though it's just the two of us and we're getting older, we go all out when we celebrate. Hence, birthday week.

Previous birthday weeks have included a trip to Vegas, lots of shopping, even more food, and some sort of nightly entertainment. It is basically just a week for me to spoil my man and I love every minute of it! There's planning, and shopping, and organizing. It's wonderful.

This week as we neared birthday week, we were both pretty sick. Also, there were rumors of a hurricane barring down on us. So while I normally plan some big activity every day, this year I copped out and got Layne a gift for every day and we watched a lot of movies. It was so much fun to hand him a surprise every day and watch his face light up as he unwrapped them!

We did manage to make it out to Alexandria for a Ghost & Graveyard tour with Amy and Andrew, though that was more for Amy and me than for Layne. He was sweet to indulge us!

The weekend after his birthday we went to The Palm for Layne's big birthday dinner and what may have been the best meal of our lives. We had kind of a disgusting amount of food... First of all, bread basket. I hate restaurants that don't give me free stuff just for sitting down. And The Palm had the most incredible butter I have ever tasted. I wanted to just dip my spoon in it. The basket was reduced to crumbs in no time. We started with the beef tenderloin carpaccio and baked clams casino. I love a nice, earthy carpaccio and this did not disappoint! And the clams casino were so flavorful and - oh my gosh. I'm too hungry to write this post; my mouth is watering just remembering it! Then we moved onto the salad, a capri with these thick tomato slices and the most incredible mozzarella I have ever had. Onto the main course, where I got a causal 14 oz filet mignon and Layne got the surf and turf, which consisted of half a lobster and a boneless 18 oz rib-eye. HOLY. We also got two sides - goat cheese mashed potatoes and green beans with pancetta, pine nuts, and pepper flakes. After we had both gained about five lbs, we decided that we each needed dessert. Layne got the cheesecake with raspberry sauce and I got the chocolate cake. Aaahhhh.... SO. GOOD.

We finally finished (officially) celebrating Layne's birthday mid-November with the Wizards vs. Jazz game. Both teams performed horribly, but we had AMAZING seats so it was all very worth it. A great ending to Layne's birthday celebration. Love you, Baby!