We are hosting Thanksgiving again and I am thrilled. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I genuinely love doing it at our house, wherever that may be. I won’t lie, all week I’ve been fighting waves of extreme, painful nostalgia about our Thanksgivings in New York— I seriously cannot believe we lived along the parade route, it was a literal dream come true.
But the good news is this year we have a baby, and I get to dress her in a frilly little outfit and that is exciting.
I did something new for me and set up our tree with just the lights on it for Thanksgiving. Usually I am very strict about holding off on anything Christmas until after Turkey Day, but I have to say I’m loving the energy of this sparkly plain tree and my garlands. It’s giving wintery forest magic, not ho ho ho.
Something I’ve said a million times but it bears repeating: the more you host the easier it gets. We didn’t need to buy a single thing except to re-up on taper candles and tea lights, and our table might be one of my favorites yet. Of course I have a wishlist of things I’d like to add to my collection in the future (we only have two Waterford Lismore wine goblets, I’d love to one day have enough to set the table with!), and I am actually borrowing martini glasses from my mom. But on the whole, we are so prepared. This is something I’m weirdly proud of.
My husband announced he is deep frying the turkey this year which, I’ll be honest, is sending me into a low-grade panic. But I have to trust the chef. Worst case scenario (aside from burning down the house), is we don’t have turkey. We’d all live. He’s confident in it, I’m in no position to challenge that, and we’ll just see what happens!
Our good family friends are bringing their tradition to the table and making lobster ravioli, which I am going to serve as a first course. I’ve never coursed out Thanksgiving but it seems very fun and festive! The vibe we’re going for this year is relaxed and elegant. I ditched a tablecloth in favor of our plain wood table with the added leaf (really glad I found a table on marketplace that came with one!! Was the correct instinct!), and we’re doing very simple sides (links below).
We found out about Dot the day after Thanksgiving last year, and a few weeks later (for most of the Christmas season) I was incredibly sick. So maybe in an effort to make up for my general lack of holiday spirit last year, I am really using Thanksgiving as a kick-off event in a way I don’t usually do.
Let me walk you through the menu and the theatrics.
5pm guests arrive for cocktail hour. We keep it light and festive with dirty martinis, shrimp cocktail, Ina’s nuts, and I like to have a little bowl of Cape Cod chips out. We’re playing jazzy fall tunes, not Christmas music.
6/6:30 (depending on the deep fried Turkey ordeal) we move to the table for dinner.
Course one: lobster ravioli in our wedding china bowls which I’m actually so glad we registered for! Side note: they were not that expensive when we registered for them :( If you’re ever in need of dishes or glassware always check replacements.com.
We then remove that dish, and serve salad on our Spode woodland plates that I love so deeply. We’re doing this one.
Then it’s time for the main event!
We have dinner rolls (which I outsourced to my mom), peas and pancetta, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and hopefully a crispy turkey that blows people away.
We eat, we drink, we laugh and then the shift to Christmas officially begins. My mom and I went to the Cheesecake Factory a few weeks ago and ordered a slice of pumpkin cheesecake at our waitress’s insistence. We were floored and we will be serving it as dessert. I am also making espresso martinis.
Dessert will be served on my Spode Christmas tree plates and this is when we start blasting true Christmas music. When guests leave, our outdoor Christmas lights will be turned on for the first time. I got the real, hot, colored incandescent lights. Miss me with those LEDs and the blue light that makes my head hurt.
Are you seeing the vision??
Hopefully all goes well, and if it doesn’t, we will laugh about it later or over pumpkin cheesecake. For now, I just need to wash all my slipcovers and practice an espresso martini tonight with the Dancing with the Stars finale!
Happy Thanksgiving friends, I am so thankful for you all and hope your week is festive and delicious!
xoxo
OMG love this transition!! Also will be taking note and having an espresso martini myself tonight for DWTS finale!
I’m so grateful! Can’t wait. 😘😋