Thanksgiving Weekend (2015)

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to spend time with loved ones.

I’m currently typing up this post while diving face first into holiday music. I absolutely love this time of year and all of the cheesiness that comes with it. No shame!

After a few days of relaxing, it’s back to reality today. Instead of dwelling on that, I wanted to share some highlights from having my mom in town to visit us over the mini-holiday break last week. Here we go!

 

Thanksgiving Weekend (2015)

Our Thanksgiving started with a trip downtown to Detroit for America’s Thanksgiving Parade!

This was the first year Scott wasn’t scheduled to work it, so he really wanted to go see the parade for the first time (I have seen it three years now!). We arrived about thirty minutes into the start time, which was perfect because we set up camp close to the end of the parade route. We had some time to kill before the parade came our way, so we hung by Campus Martius and took a few pictures by the 60-foot Christmas tree.

We ran into our friend, Katlyn, and her family, and we spent the next half hour or so chatting away while trying to find a clear place to stand to see the parade.

One by one, floats and gigantic balloons came our way spreading “Happy Thanksgiving”s and holiday cheer. It was strange, however, that all of the balloons seemed to be on their last breath by the time they made it to us.

It was chilly out, but a lot warmer than I remember it being in the past! We took a hot chocolate break in the middle of the parade and went inside of the Quicken Loans building to warm up for a few minutes before walking closer to the Grand Stand.

I managed to make it past the cliffs (hehe), but lost one of my gloves somewhere on the way to taking this picture. (It was actually my mom’s glove… whoops!). After searching around without luck, we figured we should get back outside before we miss the finale, so we walked closer to where they were filming for television and snagged some pretty great seats!

There were several marching bands, dance groups, and plenty of floats to keep everyone entertained. My favorite was probably the elves jumping and doing flips on trampolines that looked like a big bed. The giant balloons were much higher here, too!

We got a kick out of seeing people hanging out of their apartment windows across from us to see the parade. (If you look close enough, you can see someone dressed in a dog costume! So random.)

As expected, a float of reindeer came at the end pulling Mr. Santa Claus himself. Everyone waved at him and then started to pack up and head out as soon as he passed by. Until next year, Santa!

After the parade, we walked around the Downtown area a bit and eventually found our car where we left it in a hurry in a parking garage earlier that morning. (Have you ever done that? Ugh… such an amateur move.)

Since it was just Scott, my mom, and I celebrating the holiday together this year, we planned to have a late lunch and kept things pretty low-key when we returned home. We picked up turkey, gravy, and macaroni and cheese from Nino Salvaggio’s the day before, and we gathered ingredients for Scott to make green beans and mashed potatoes.

I made a cranberry relish sauce that turned out great! (I’ll be back to share the recipe closer to Christmas.) I happily went back for seconds, but made sure to leave enough room for a round of dessert later on.

I insisted on having pumpkin pie, and Scott wanted to make a new banana pudding recipe. We whipped up some whipped cream to put on top, and both were delicious!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention a big part of my day… breaking my pinky toe. I seriously don’t even know how I pulled this one off.

As soon as we sat down for dinner, I got up to get more turkey and somehow caught two of my toes from my left foot under the wood pegs of the couch. I thought I just stubbed them, but then I looked down and saw that they were pointed in the complete opposite direction. The most impressive part about it all was that my dinner plate making it safely back to the table on the way down. I’m a true gem, I tell you.

Anyways, I spent the majority of the rest of our day parked right here.

I iced and elevated my foot for hours until we decided to go see a movie. It was actually my idea, and I could hobble around enough to make do. We saw The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, and while I loved the entire series, it wasn’t my favorite one. I enjoyed The Hunger Games and Catching Fire the most. It was still cool to see, and we had a great day spending quality time together.

 

Other highlights from our weekend include:

 

Taking my mom to her yearly trip to the cider mill…

Strolling around Downtown Rochester…

(How cool are these Minion cakes displayed at Home Bakery?)

(There were tons of pretty Christmas decorations to see and purchase.)

And lunch at Mad Hatter Bistro in Birmingham…

I have written about this restaurant several times on the blog, and it still continues to be one of my favorites to bring out-of-town visitors. This time, we were sat down stairs (er, down the rabbit hole) for our meal.

It was really cool to sit in the Alice and Wonderland inspired ambiance and dine with goblets.

The three of us ordered a variety from the menu, including the chicken and waffles appetizer to start. (Can you believe this Southerner had never tried chicken and waffles before?)

They have a lot of great salad, small plate, and sandwich options for lunch, and I couldn’t say no to the server’s favorite (Hatter’s Chicken Panini) that came with a side of french fries.

Both Scott and My mom ordered lunch combos that came with half a sandwich and half a salad, and she also sipped on a cup of lavender flavored hot tea.

We did a lot of lounging around the house while my mom was here, but it was perfect. With my crazy toe situation and her sore hip, we were like two peas in a pod on the couch reading and watching cheesy holiday movies. Our time together always goes by quickly when she’s here, and I’m always glad to have her visit.

We had a great little Thanksgiving weekend!

 

Here’s hoping your Monday is already off to a great start. Ours started with an early morning trip to the vets (poor Aspen is having a questionable mass removed from her chin while she’s down for a dental cleaning), and I’m planning on taking a barre class over lunch before I go work at the gym later this afternoon.

Thanks so much for checking in! I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.

 

» Linking my Weekend Snapshots up with Katie and Erin.

 

Questions of the Day

• What were some highlights from your weekend?

• Have you taken advantage of any Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals?

 

Scott, my mom, and I set out on a mission for a few specific things after my client appointment on Friday. We came home with a new Dyson vacuum (finally!) for an absolute steal. I’m currently on the hunt for a compact DSLR camera, and want to see if I can find anything online today. I don’t need anything crazy, and from the research I’ve done, I’m leaning towards the or . Any other suggestions?