I was so proud of my turkey! It came out of the oven and I was like, “The turkey is beautiful! Ryan look at the turkey! Look at it! It’s so beautiful! Take a picture of me with the turkey.” This was my first turkey done by me without the aid of a veteran (AKA someone who has done this more than a few times). You know how as you grow up there are lots of little things that make you feel like an adult? Well, cooking Thanksgiving dinner and preparing a really nice turkey made me feel like, “yeah, I got this, I’m an adult.”

Anyway, it was a really lovely evening. Our friends Alessia and Raffaello came over for their first Thanksgiving and they were the best sports. We were feeding them a number of foods they’d never had before and they tried everything. Having guests over meant I got to use these wine glass charms my friend Mala had sent me. They are little monster guys and they hang on to the stem by their mouth. It’s adorable and helps you keep track of your glass. Silly, but cute – see the picture below.

I made stuffing for the first time,and usually I don’t like it. And because I don’t like it, I thought why not lean in, so I put mushrooms in which I really don’t like. But it turned out to be amazingly delicious. I’m semi-converted. I also served cranberry sauce, canned shaped, cut into slices. I bought the can when I was in Raleigh. My family might correct me, but I have no recollection of ever having this kind of cranberry sauce as a kid. But, since the can shape with the lines on the side is an iconic American Thanksgiving image, I had to serve it.

We also all had to share what we were thankful for and we had to make trace our hands (with crayon) and color them in to be turkeys. I had such a blast, I went to bed full, woke up full, and went to work on Friday feeling all warm and fuzzy and aglow with the holiday spirit. Cheesy I know, but true.

Then over the weekend, we decided it was time to embrace Christmas so Ryan and I went to Hamley’s, which is a famous toy store in London. It dates back to 1790!! It was really crowded and felt a lot like going to FAO Schwartz in New York City. There were five floors of toys! They also had stuff on the floor doing demonstrations with the toys. I thought that seemed like a really fun job, until I realized that my job is the same just instead of demonstrating toys I demonstrate science. Ryan was into the the remote controlled cars and planes. I was into the Legos. I also go to toy stores, look at the Lego Star Wars items and sigh and wish they weren’t so expensive. People can do such cool stuff with Legos. Look at these AMAZING statues of the royal family!! Also, just fyi, the Santa and reindeer are all Legos, but they are in Covent Garden, not Hamley’s. We left Hamley’s with a present for Boden and a small toy for me and Ryan.

We then went over to Covent Garden to check out their Christmas scene. They had a nice big tree, a big silver reindeer, and some lights. I didn’t take a picture, but they also have ENORMOUS Christmas bulbs hanging from the ceiling. They are really impressive in size. It was a beautiful afternoon and I really nice way to kick-off the Christmas season. I even talked Ryan into stopping at Costa Coffee for a few holiday drinks. What could be better? Nothing, that’s what.

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