Thanksgiving Fun

Did you have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday? We had a wonderful weekend, full of family, friends, food and an excitable boxer puppy. 

My in-laws have a four-month-old boxer named Maeve who is pretty precious. Most who know me know that I'm a cat person through and through, but even I was wooed by those puppy dog eyes. Now, if only we could do something about the whole "obeying commands" and "not smelling like a dog" thing. (Don't worry...my husband has assured me boxers are part of my future.)

Our Thanksgiving meal consisted of all the usual suspects with a couple of additions: cornbread, made in an antique cast iron corn-imprint pan...

And my bourbon pumpkin cheesecake (more on that to follow).

We skipped Black Friday madness in favor of patronizing the eateries and shops in Old Town Alexandria.

Sean, Katie and I had lunch at Austin Grill. I had delicious steak tacos and a pomegranate sangria margarita. Their dessert menu is displayed in a Viewfinder! How fun is that?

After lunch, we hit all our favorite shops downtown, including Decorium, a super girly store that goes ALL OUT for Christmas (see snow-covered floors above), Red Barn Mercantile, Paper Source and others. I totally forgot I had wanted to visit this new shop, Fifteen Eleven, so I'll have to hit that one next time.

That night, the whole family went to see The Descendants, starring George Clooney. It was really, really wonderful and I keep thinking of little moments from the movie, days later. I laughed and I cried.

On Saturday, my mother-in-law, Sean and I went into DC to eat lunch and go to the The Phillips Collection.  We had a nice outdoor lunch at Darlington House, then had a nice walk through pretty neighborhoods to the museum.

The museum is intimate, well-curated and home to some of the loveliest modern and post-modern works, including Pierre-August Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party," which is bigger than I ever imagined. We went to see a special exhibit of Degas' studies of ballerinas, which I LOVED. My favorite piece we saw, however, was the striped painting above by Gene Davis. I literally gasped! How great would it be to paint a small room or one wall like that?

Anyway, it was a lovely weekend. I hope you all had full and happy Thanksgivings!