Thankful Birthday Weekend – Part 1

As Thanksgiving weekend comes to an end, we are sitting on the couch finally getting round to watching episode one of the new season of X Factor USA and I am going through the weekend’s photos and thinking, once again, that I have so much to be thankful for.

It was my birthday on Friday, and I have to say, if Facebook and text messages are good for anything in this life, they let you know how much you are loved. My iPhone buzzed all day long. And the in person wishes were even better. I have a lovely group of co-workers and friends at work, and of course, I have a wonderful husband. It’s funny because I’ve been looking forward to a weekend birthday for a long time, but when it came down to it, all I wanted to do was stay home with my guy and have pizza and wine. Life was good on my birthday. 🙂

Saturday was spent making a Thanksgiving feast for twelve people (including ourselves). This came about a few weeks ago when I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my weekend birthday. I had been all “Let’s go out!”, but it’s been a really busy month and a bit; and I just wanted to stay home. So I turned to Sean one day and said:

Will you roast a turkey on barbecue for my birthday, so we can have a turkey dinner party?

He said yes, and we had an amazing dinner party with our friends. So much food… On the menu:

DINNER

• BBQ Roasted Turkey

• Honey Infused Cranberry Sauce

• Pear, Almond, Cherry Stuffing

• Garlic Mashed Yams

• Steamed Brussel Sprouts (which didn’t end up being made, but I’m sure they would have been delicious!)
• Rosemary Gravy
• Sweet Bell Pepper, Parsley, Chickpea Salad

DESSERT

• Apple Pie

• Raspberry Chocolate Ganache Pie

• Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake

It was a great evening with friends, and they are something I am very thankful to have them in my life. We ate, we drank (from the many bottles that were brought as gifts – my friends know me well!), we laughed. It was so nice to have my birthday party at home.

When everyone left, we loaded the dishwasher, ate some more pie, and caught up on the PVR. When we finally went to bed, I thought about how lucky I am to have such a good husband and set of friends. And thank goodness for the dishwasher.