Thankfulness Weekend

Well, we're all back at it after a long, beautiful, relaxing and fun Thanksgiving weekend, and that's always hard. This Monday was a little harder than most because I started it off by dropping my phone in water. With all the gorgeous Thanksgiving weekend photos on it - that weren't backed up. Ugh. So, I'm starting fresh to kick off the holiday season ... again.

We had one of the hands-down best Thanksgiving meals together with friends at Hatchet Hall. The restaurant was closed for the holiday, so we had free reign of the place.

Every counter surface was taken up by the pot luck dishes all our friends brought, and as you looked around, all you could think was ABUNDANCE. And THANK YOU.

From Lacey's Mom's unreal corn dish and perfect mashed potatoes to David's foie gras gravy (yes, FOIE GRAS GRAVY!) to Brian's perfect turkey, and Vavine's roasted apples ...

 ... one morsel was more delicious than the next. It was truly an embarrassment of riches.

I threw down on the pies, as usual, and even managed to get myself a slice this year! Not a whole lot of meals can beat Thanksgiving if you're an American, but even with all of the ridiculous piles of mouth watering food, the story of the day was still all about gratitude, and being thankful for all that we have. Like, we talked about it. And meant it.

That gratefulness carried over all weekend, as most of the people I know chose to opt out of the Black Friday disgusting mayhem, and opt OUTSIDE. R.E.I. kind of kicked off that sentiment by being closed that day for their employees to have a day to get outside, and we fully took that to heart.

Last year we got out of dodge on Black Friday, and headed for Yosemite, which was glorious. We didn't have the same luxury of time this year, so settled for Saddle Peak in Malibu, which isn't really settling. Our hike to the summit was rewarded by majestic 360 views, but even better was the surprise deer couple that bounded right by us (and of course that awesome photo is now gone forever). A stunning O.P. looking sunset was the icing on top, and the perfect location and visual for mindful gratitude.

The rest of the weekend was almost all outside, except movies, and for watching our Vikings take over first place in our division yesterday (!), capping off a wonderful, idyllic weekend of family, friendship, and fun.

I hope yours was all of that good stuff too - sans the phone casualties. And now, here we go! Off to the races toward the end of the year, all set with a new phone and tons of room for new photos, videos, stories and excellent messages ... let's get going!

HAPPY Holiday Season to us all!

*Photos kindly donated by Paul Gronner and Steve Taschler.