Posts from — November 2011

After traveling to the west coast for a week, returning to Boston, and immediately heading to Maine for a week, you shouldn’t be surprised that my refrigerator is running on empty. We made a quick trip to the marketing across the street, but since it’s small and local and therefore expensive, we opted for a few essentials to hold us over until we can make a big time trip to the grocery store. We grabbed the basics, like bread, fruit, milk but skipped over, oh I don’t know, dinner items! So tonight I’m doing the whole breakfast for dinner thing.

Waffles (yes, I’m ashamed to have these in our freezer), diced bananas, syrup.

What’s that saying? About a picture worth a thousand words? Well if you believe it, riddle me this. The day after Thanksgiving meant a few things for me in Portland. It meant leftovers, lots of water, Christmas shopping and witnessing what is perhaps the most talked about sunset in all of Maine’s history.

I first spotted the sky on fire while shopping downtown with the boyfriend. I ran to the car to grab my camera, snapped a few photos and then told the boyfriend to drive, fast, to the Western Promenade. I played with my settings to get a few perfect shots. And I’m still left speechless when I look back on these photos.

And I thought our Thanksgiving day sunset was brilliant. When was the last time you saw a sunset this vibrant, this alive, this on fire?

It’s hard to believe another Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year I was fortunate to spend a day and night surrounded by close friends and incredible family members. The boyfriend and I spent Thanksgiving together – spending the morning and lunch time with his family, and then traveling to my parent’s house for a late afternoon dinner. We ate, drank and gave thanks for those who are with us today while reflecting on those who are no longer with us physically. Unfortunately each year the list seems to grow, but acknowledging our past loved ones helps us remember them, their spirits and the memories we made together.

This Thanksgiving we introduced some new foods, and new traditions. Most notably, my sister brought the most delicious sweet potato casserole, topped with marshmallows (who knew). And for new traditions, I helped my mom with the centerpieces this year. We went with simple white and red candles, a few branches of red berries, and round hurricanes with a small votive surrounded by chestnuts.

In case you think they are saying grace, they are not. They’re checking football scores.

It was a perfect day and night, reminding me of how fortunate I truly am for having a happy, hilarious, loving, connected family. Highlights from this year include having my sister accompanied by her husband for this first time since her wedding, grace delivered by my youngest cousin, 16 year old James, that brought half of my family to tears, and the post dinner sunset that so powerfully set along the horizon on Thanksgiving night.

Picking an outfit for Thanksgiving was easy this year, because Thanksgiving dinners have never been super formal in my family, and fortunately the same is true for the boyfriend’s family traditions. I did however remember, that Thanksgiving day is the day my dad decides to take ‘family photos’ for the upcoming Christmas card. So casual is fine, but I wanted to look cute. After all, my parents send our holiday cards to more people than I have friends on Facebook.

I opted for a look that pretty much screams ‘me’. Skinny jeans, tall riding boots, a silk J.Crew top with ruffles around the neckline and a long, oversized cardigan to stay warm. I threw on a thin brown belt, my Michael Kors watch and a few big, bright bangles. I also decided at the last minute to swap my nude nail polish for bright red, just in case they made the cut for the final Christmas card.

Below is a look at what I wore, and a similar outfit I pieced together on Polyvore.

The only mistake of this outfit was the high waisted, thin belt. Not the kind of thing you want to be wearing while you over eat and drink for 12 hours straight.

After my week in Las Vegas for a work conference, my dad flew out from Maine and together we jumped on a plane to Los Angeles. I haven’t seen my west coast family since my trip to Los Angeles last spring with Samantha, so I was thrilled to be back. My family in Los Angeles is big, really big and some of my fondest memories ever are of my time spent with them. My cousins are incredible hosts, always make us feel at home, and sure know how to throw a party. They are wild and fun, hilarious like no other, and beautifully diverse. Plus, they make up the side of my family that is lesser known by my sister and me. When I visit, they share stories from decades ago, stories of my grandparents, and my great grandparents. They share historical stories, how our family came to America and settled in Los Angeles. And best of all, they share stories about my dad’s childhood.

My dad lights up when he is around his west coast family, he radiates happiness while spending time with our cousins, his cousins. So it was seriously a privilege for me to travel to Los Angeles alone with my dad. Just the two of us. I’ve always been more connected to my dad’s family than my sister. I’ve made 3 visits by myself recently that she didn’t make, so I’ve seen the cousins more frequently than she. I’ve met the new husbands, and boyfriends and bonded with the young children that were too young the last time my sister visited. And most special, I’ve been the babies. The little ones that weren’t born when she last visited.

We arrived on a Friday and left Sunday at midnight, but you would never know it given all that we packed in those days. We wined and dined with our incredible hosts, we sat together in the living room for hours, talking, gossiping, snacking. We drove around the city, seeing the Hollywood sights. We shopped and window shopped, and drove down the hottest streets hoping to spot a heard of paparazzi. We spent a night at karaoke with two of my cousins, their children and a few family friends. We had a game night with all the cousins. A night filled with an incredible family style dinner, desserts, wine and hours of games like apples to apples and gestures.

I even squeezed in two fabulous visits with friends. I spent a morning driving south on the 405 to Long Beach to see Corie, Matt and baby Jaelyn, and then back north to Manhattan Beach to have lunch with my college roommate Claire. All of that in a few hours leading up to the big night.

Then the big night. Sunday night. The Thanksgiving gala event. With a tent erected on the front lawn, my dad’s cousin hosted 50+ people for a one of a kind Thanksgiving dinner party. It was glorious. More food and desserts than I have ever seen. And endless conversation, laughs with close family and family friends and friends of family friends.

And then, just like that, it was time to leave. Time to leave my incredibly gracious hosts, to say goodbye to my cousins and babies that will likely be grown kiddos by the time I see them again. With a full belly and warm heart my dad and I returned our rental car, boarded a plane at LAX, and left the city of angels. The city that houses our favorite family.

Until next time.

This is me: at work, pissed off, stressed out, drinking a coffee at almost 7PM on a Tuesday.

Not, fun, my friends. Vegas was great, Los Angeles was better. But I ate way too much food, indulged in too much wine, and the red eye flight home on Sunday threw me off. I’m still recovering, and unfortunately don’t have time for it. Because now it’s Tuesday and I’m working a half day tomorrow, and leaving for Maine immediately afterwards which means tonight I have to finish up work, get home, unpack from the west coast, repack for Thanksgiving, maybe squeeze in a load of laundry and sometime before bed I’d really, really like to go through my pictures, edit my favorites, share them with my friends and family and write a couple of recap posts for the blog.

It’d also be lovely if I could finish catching up on my DVR’ed shows from last week, start my new book and crochet a new cowl as a Christmas present for my sister. On top of that I hope to clean the bathroom and sweep all of the floors so that we can come home next week to a decently clean house.

But I don’t want to push my luck.

I survived my first trip to Las Vegas. Fortunately for my body’s sake, I was there for work, so the possible level of debauchery was seriously limited by an early morning call time of 7:45. But regardless of work commitments I was able to take in the sights and sounds of Las Vegas. I roamed the strip during the day, saw the fountain show at the Bellagio and sat by a card table (did. not. play.) in one of the casinos to mooch off the free drink policy.

I had a few fancy dinners (thanks dad), but a lot more meals made of snacks from the CVS food aisle. I don’t think I ever ate a real breakfast, but certainly consumed about 6 times more coffee than normal. Many nights I drank wine on the balcony of my hotel room. Other nights I ventured to the hotel bars. One night I went to Marquee. I was staying at the Cosmopolitan and our conference had an open bar reception there, but I unfortunately experienced no run ins with a celeb. I was really, seriously hoping for Kim K (I kid you not).

I have to admit, I didn’t really love Las Vegas. In fact, I barely liked it. The whole strip was far too food court mall meets cheesy bright lights, and the people I saw depressed me. Gambling in general depresses me, so it didn’t help to leave my hotel room each morning at 8 to see old men and women still seated in front of a card table or slot machine.

But Vegas was good for one thing, and that’s blue skies all day every day. Which makes for extra sharp photos of incredibly big buildings. Before you browse, I apologize for not taking a SINGLE PICTURE OF MYSELF on this trip. Whoops.

Everyone at the conference is talking about this book. I’ve seen reviews making their rounds on the web, but until today I hadn’t heard anyone talking about it in person. So, have read it yet? What’d you think? Should I pick it up for the flight home?

I know this video went viral yesterday, but oh Marcel, how I love you. Our office was absolutely obsessed with the first video, so we were elated to find this new video on YouTube yesterday morning. So while I’m working in Vegas, enjoy.

Well I’m off to Las Vegas! I finished packing, made it through the work day, back home to grab my suitcase and I’m now waiting at the airport, absolutely exhausted. I just keep thinking: in 6 hours I’ll be at The Cosmopolitan. Surrounded by bright lights, big casinos and rooftop pool parties. Then I remind myself that I’ll also be inside each day between 8-4 at a conference for work.

By Friday I’ll be in Los Angeles. I’m even more excited for that leg of my trip. Although my stay is short — just two days — my family out west is incredible. I can’t wait to spend Friday night my cousins. We’re going to a karaoke bar with the little kiddos!

The entire weekend calls for rain, but that’s just fine with me. Saturday I’ll catch up with friends. Sunday is the family Thanksgiving. 45 people are coming to my cousin’s dinner. Can you believe that? 45 people! My dad and I are contributing a dessert from Maine. We had to pick something simple, since staying in a hotel doesn’t exactly make cooking or baking easy. So we’ve shipped a few bottles of Maine maple syrup and will serve pecan ice cream topped with maple syrup! Yum.

So there you have it. I’m off for the next 6 days! I hope you all have a fab work week and even more wonderful weekend. Stay tuned from pictures of the strip and our Thanksgiving party in California!

Do you love the picture? It’s my view each evening when I leave my building and walk towards the T. Now that it’s so dark by the end of the day, the buildings are all glowing. It’s gorgeous. I’ve started snapping iPhone pictures (above included) and may have to begin a gallery of almost the same photos like my bridge obsession!