gobble, gobble

We are busy, busy around here gearing up for Charlie's first birthday and Christmas, but we can't forget Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because: 1) the food and 2) it's the beginning of Christmas season. :) We've been traveling out of the country (or I've been extremely pregnant) the last few years so it's been too long since we had a proper Thanksgiving.

We headed down to southern Virginia to visit Jon's brother and his family. Nana and Grandpa were able to come up from Arkansa so we could all be together. We all teamed up to make the meal, and it was quite the delicious feast.

We had to leave on Friday to head back so Jon could finish a work project, but we had time to help decorate their tree before we left....Charlie, of course, being the biggest helper of them all.

Enough of these photos. When do we eat??

Caught him standing - happens more and more each day. 

Charlie's first plate. Don't worry, this isn't all he ate.
He had at least three rolls, and he really liked the green bean casserole.

Decorating with Aunt Monica.

And a few videos of all the fun he had with Nana & Grandpa - blanket rides and head bobs!

Munich, I'll drink to that

Hey, remember that one time we went on a vacation over 3 months ago and I just now finished blogging it? Yeah, me neither.

We trained to Munich later in the day on Thanksgiving. After checking into the hotel, we walked a few blocks to the main Munich Christmas market. It was quite large and quite crowded. While it wasn't my favorite market, I've still never met a Christmas market I didn't like. And you'll be proud to learn that we switched things up this time - instead of fried dough, we got fried potato pancakes. [And yes, three months later, I'm still working that trip off. It's all salad and pilates around here these days.]

After browsing the market, we wandered over to Hofbrauhaus, one of the most famous beer halls in Germany. You can't go to Germany and not visit a beer hall. Although this one has become quite touristy, it's still worth a visit. If it couldn't be turkey and all the fixins, at least it was a pint and pork knuckle for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a fun experience, but I'd probably be fine never repeating it again. I was overwhelmed on a relatively quiet Thursday evening. I would never survive during Oktoberfest.

thanksgiving of champions.

The next day we took a 20-minute train ride to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp site. I'm not really sure how to write about this experience. I thought it was very informative and a moving memorial site. It was the coldest day of the vacation - an overcast day with chilling winds. I was bundled up, not outside that long, and still freezing. It made me realize even more how the thousands of people enslaved there had suffered in rags without coats or shoes, starving, sick and weak. We both learned a lot, and I'm glad we went, but it was heartbreaking.

the names of everyone that perished at Dachau

On a brighter note, that night we had what was perhaps my favorite meal of the trip. Considering we ate a lot of great food (see pilates/salad reference above), this is high praise. Dallmayr is a gourmet food shop and market downstairs by day and a michelin star restaurant upstairs by night. It was so fancy and delightful. I loved every bite. After dinner we went to a smaller market where I ate, you guessed it, fried dough!

and no, i am not flipping you off. or am i? 

On our last full vacation day, we took a day trip/tour to the castles. We drove through the mountains making stops in one village and at two castles. I'll be perfectly honest, this was not my favorite day, and it was primarily due to the weather. It was (again) cold, drizzly, and foggy. I'm sure the drive was beautiful, but we couldn't see a thing. Even once we got to the base of Neuschwanstein Castle, it was completely hiding in the fog. We walked all the way up to the top, but even from there, we wouldn't have known we were at a castle. I guess I'll just have to go back someday.

We did tour the inside and that was very enjoyable. It's a somewhat modern castle, which was built to look much older. I bought a puzzle, which we put together over Christmas. I like to joke that I had to buy the puzzle so I could know what the castled looked like.

i walked all the way up that hill for this? wah wah.

We finished off our last full day with a very traditional meal at a very traditional German restaurant. And then it was time to fit everything we brought + everything we bought back into our suitcases. No easy feat, but I also feel so accomplished after a good packing job.

it doesn't get more German than this.

The next day we had a few hours before our flight left so we visited the Residenz, aka the city palace for German rulers from around 1500-1918. It was room after room after room of palace opulence - much of it destroyed and then later rebuilt after WWII. Adjacent to the Residenz is a beautiful theater that was also destroyed and then restored to how it looked in the 1750s.

There was one last stop at a market for one last bite of fried dough and sausages.

The flight home wasn't as cushy as the business class one on the way over, BUT we had one huge bonus - there was one live TV channel on our flight and it just so happened to be a sports channel that was showing the CBS feed of the Packers vs. Patriots game. I have no idea how we got that lucky, but we got to see the Packers win just before landing. If you think watching a game with me is an experience, you should really try watching a game with me on a packed international flight. It's maddening to not be able to yell during a football game. I did my best, but I think the Croatian lady next to me thought I was certifiable.

thank you, lufthansa. 

Thus ended the vacation. Now on to the next one. :)

friendsgiving

I'll admit it. It was a somewhat selfish decision to host a friendsgiving this year. You see, we'll be out of the country (more on that later this week…eek!) next week over Thanksgiving. We were also out of the country last year, and as much as I love to travel, I couldn't go two years in a row without one of my favorite meals of the year.

To remedy this problem, we invited the lovely members of our church community group over for a Thanksgiving feast today. I made the turkey, gravy and crescent rolls and everyone else brought the side dishes and desserts. It was so much fun to celebrate Thanksgiving early with some of the people I am most thankful for. I love this group of sweet friends, and I love that they indulged my wish for a Thanksgiving meal and showed up at my house with delicious food to share.

I had so much fun setting the table. I wanted it to be casual so I used mason jars, burlap and green apples that I already had on hand. Hydrangeas are my favorite so they always make an appearance. :)

Jon has better hand-writing than me so we wrote the place cards. We added a Lindt chocolate truffle at each setting.

These are actually Christmas candles that spell out "Peace." I wrapped them in burlap & tied them with bows to repurpose them for this occasion. 

A staple at every holiday meal growing up. I love these rolls. 

Victoria laughing about the fact that she peeled 5 lbs of potatoes.
That would be roughly 1/2 lb of potatoes per person. 

The carving of the turkey. 

I took this after we were done eating, but at least I remembered to take one before we all got up from the table. 

It's not Thanksgiving without a dessert table. Yes, it must be an entire table.

In true thanksgiving fashion, we watched some football in between dinner and dessert. :)

Looking for an easy and delicious Thanksgiving cocktail?
We served apple fizzes before dinner . Apple cider and bubbly = perfection.