November In Photos

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Gobble gobble!

Here’s a glimpse into my November in photos, thankfulness-style. Because while I can roll my eyes with the rest of them at all of the photos white girls post in the fall, I never get tired of thankfulness. The more the merrier during the month of November….and to infinity and beyond!

This November I was thankful for lots of Thanksgivings, celebrate with lots and lots of people I adore. First up was a special NeighborNights party at my place — Neighborsgiving!

I was so thankful for these good people, thankful for the fabulously eclectic smorgasbord of food that showed up, and thank you for just how easy it is to be around this community of people. They make my life in our neighborhood endlessly more fun.

I was thankful as well for Friends Thanksgiving with about a dozen of my closest friends. My friend, Danielle, was a lovely host and sent us home with homemade thankfulness cards. We all rocked it with the traditional Thanksgiving cooking, and had an enormous spread of food (including my first shot at vegan mashed potatoes). And we stayed late into the night playing cards, building legos, doling out dating advice, and just generally being merry. I can’t even tell you how thankful I am for these great friends who know me well.

I was also thankful — yet again — to have a job that finally allows me some significant time off for Thanksgiving! So I headed down to Wichita a bit early this year to soak up some extra Thanksgiving festivities with the fam.

Very thankful for this mama, and her generous heart. We adopted the tradition last year of doing something a little more service-oriented each holiday, and so this year she suggested we cook a bunch of pies and make some freezer meals for some family friends who were moving during the holidays this year. Together, we made four (four!!!) pies, my chicken enchilada casserole, a breakfast casserole, and a handful of other goodies to bring them on the night before T-Day. It was awesome.

I’m also thankful for these two turkeys (my sis and brother-in-law) who always take over the main Thanksgiving cooking so that this food blogger can have a day off. Although I wanted to help this year because we spatchcocked our first turkey (yes, we’re so “on trend“) — which turned out to be a delicious success!

Also thankful for an extended family full of good cooks and the incredible spread (this is only part of it) that we enjoyed on Thanksgiving. (Can you spy my brussels sprouts cranberry and quinoa salad?)

Annnd thankful for a pup who played hard…and then napped hard all weekend.

I was also — ahem — thankful that I dominated in cards. (While my sis and I dominated that bowl of Chex mix.)

(Which Henry slept through as well.)

I was also super thankful for our 2nd-Annual Ebright Talks!

Inspired by TED Talks and a few friends, we began the tradition last year of giving educational “presentations” during the holidays. The topics are always a surprise, always random, and always more fun with a few extra glasses of wine. The lineup this year included (clockwise):

• Me: Healthy Multitasking: Barre3-Inspired Toothbrushing Workouts
• Erin: Flu Shot Mythbusters
• Sarah: Similarities In World Religions As Seen In Art & Architecture
• Dad: Innovations In Geothermal Heating
  
• Jeff: Beer Tasting 101
  
• Mom: Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, & The Enigma Machine
  

Visual aids and participation are always highly encouraged.

And I even made them burn a few calories in the process too. Success!!

Since none of us are going to be together for Christmas this year, we celebrated an early “Thanksmas” this year. It was a nice, low-key morning, followed by our traditional Mexican food for lunch. :)

(Can you tell how Thankful Henry was about my little tradition of making him wear the leftover bows from our presents?)

Sadly, Henry and I had to leave the Wichita festivities a little early to make it back to KC…

…but it was worth it to attend one of my favorite weddings of the year. My friends, neighbors, and Photo Bus owners John and Cate DePrisco tied the knot!!! It’s been pretty fun getting to watch these two meet, fall in love, and plan a wedding over the past few years. And it was even more fun to have everyone from our neighborhood show up to celebrate their wedding!

Let’s just say it was a party.

 So, so, much fun.

And yet again, it made me all the more thankful for good people around to celebrate good months like this one.

Cheers to a festive December ahead!