After catching a few zzz’s we went to see the new Muppets’ Movie. Which everyone should go and see now especially if you grew up watching the Muppets. I felt so sentimental, loved the music, and laughed throughout the film.
We then had a late lunch/early dinner at Houlihan’s, which for chain restaurants has one of the best menus, and full of healthy options.
I had a black bean and chickpea veggie burger with asparagus.
My mom had the rosemary chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccolini.
Then it was off to Peddler’s Village for Christmas lights and their gingerbread house contest.
So many well designed houses!
Harry Potter inspired:
The Magic Kingdom:
But I think the one below of the Christmas Story was my favorite. Can you believe it’s all edible!!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! My extended weekend was a nice balance of time with family, friends, work, and shopping. Oh and puppy playtime as well.
The little dog is getting so big 🙂I started my Thanksgiving with a quick BodyRock routine and then started to do a bit of kick boxing on Exercise TV, but decided to take advantage of the warm sunny weather with a 2.5 mile run around my grandmother’s very hilly neighborhood.
After washing up and chatting with cousins as they began to arrive it was time to eat!! My Thanksgiving day plate was full of a little bit of everything-fish, turkey, cornbread stuffing, broccoli, string beans, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, and yams. I think I went back for a bit more stuffing and a roll. And I made sure to leave room for dessert!I had a nice helping of sweet potato pie with cool whip. Mmm 🙂A few hours later and after some digestion my mom, sister, a few of my sister’s friends, and I headed out for Black Friday shopping. Joining the heard for Black Friday sales is a relatively new tradition for us-we just started 3 years ago, but it was kinda fun so even with an earlier start time this year, we decided to give it a go. So by 11 pm we were in line at Target and by 1 am we were at Old Navy. Target, though crowded, was very streamlined, Old Navy on the other hand was a mess!! The line was wrapped around the store in all kinds of ways and there were not nearly enough people working the cash registers.
After making it through the Old Navy line we headed to the mall and waited for store by store to open, and at last after catching several good deals we headed home and passed out!! A few hours later we were up and at em again ready for more fun…post to come 🙂
One day until Thanksgiving, can you believe it! Where does the time go??
In the spirit of the coming Holidays I figured I would do a post about my top 5 favorite holiday movies:
5. A Christmas Story
4. Babes in Toyland
3. Home Alone
2. National Lampoon’s A Christmas Vacation
1. A Muppet Christmas Carol
What’s your favorite Christmas movie?
Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to all those traveling this holiday weekend.
Nicole
PS-why was the latest Disney version of the Christmas carol on the scary side? I think if I saw this version as a kid I would have been forever turned away from such a classic story!!
This past Saturday I met up with Ryan to have brunch at Fig and Olive. I had heard great things but did not have the chance to experience first hand until Saturday. I’m so sorry that I’ve passed by this place so often in the past. It was by far one of my best brunch experiences in the city!
I ordered the poached eggs with marinated salmon, avocado, citrus, scallions, and ricotta. Oh my gosh, my mouth is salivating just thinking about the salmon. I also loved the presentation. There was salmon at the bottom of the sourdough bread with 2 eggs places on top, additional salmon and cheese on the side.
In other news tentative workout plan for the week
Sunday-50 min walking around city, bodyrock”ya da one” workout/pilates
I’m officially into the holiday season and in particular the holiday eating season, and this year I’m going to try and back away from the cookies. I feel like I’ve done a nice job over the last 6 months of decreasing my sugar intake and I don’t want to undo all of my hard work.
My first challenge came this past Saturday at my yearly graduate student Thanksgiving Potluck dinner. And while I did eat some of everything I kept to small taste-
A bit of wine
and cheese
should also show you the entire cheese spread:
I also had a bit of mac’n’cheese and sweet potatoes:
and loaded up on salad and brussels sprouts:
Also so proud that I kept to only 1 cookie. Unfortunately the leftovers are still in my apartment which meant snacking on a cookie or 2 the following days. Ah, will power!!
I had the scallops with pureed squash with truffle oil.
Sunday lunch was from Founding Farmers. I highly recommend this restaurant for any visitors to the city. The restaurant features locally and seasonal goods and just about everything on the menu is made on site.
For an appetizer we had sauteed PEI mussels. For my main dish I had the asparagus, green olives, white bean hummus, and white cheddar tartine-oh my gosh this was soooo gooood!!!
Monday/Tuesday lunch was thanks to Sweet Green-a salad and sandwich shop.
Monday’s salad was the November special and included roasted kale and cranberry vinaigrette:
Will give you a recap of all the fun I’m having here in DC as soon as possible, but for now a collection of recipes I want to give a try when I’m next in my kitchen.
Orange Pumpkin Cloverleafs-Perhaps a good bread for Thanksgiving, and because the obsession with all things orange in color continues because I haven’t turned orange yet 🙂
Apple, and cheddar, and whole wheat scones-because I have so many apples in my kitchen that I just cannot eat fast enough, that and I’ve been itching to bake up a batch of scones, oh and I’m kinda hungry at the moment so my mind is all about savory.
Oh, how is it possible that I work in a lab that studies stress, yet I just load on the stress? Well after getting only 5 hours of sleep over the last couple of nights, and those hours being pretty restless, I did something to alleviate a bit of that stress.
1. I decided to skip a conference that I wanted to attend on social justice-while this is my passion, I have so much data to sort through and make sense of my time was better spent in lab today especially since I will be away for another conference at the end of the week.
2. I decided to postpone the attendance of an informational meeting until next month. Going would have involved a stance in Philadelphia on my way to DC. Carry bags from one meeting to another is not fun-I did it last year in my crazy travels from California to Philadelphia to New York and back to California again-while applying for a fellowship-in the end I caught a cold and was just spent…not trying to do that again.
And while I now also miss a friend’s birthday celebration in Philadelphia, I have time to fully meet with a collaborator to discuss data, do laundry, pack, etc.
My mom is also sick and didn’t want me to catch her cold, so all signs really did point to not going.
3. Listened to the new Florence and the Machine album on repeat while I attempted to get through my data-still need to enter in so much-and then eventually make sense of it all. It’s really a great album, I need to catch her in concert!
proverbs 10:28-The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.