It's the Holiday Season!

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, and are enjoying the holiday season so far! Our celebration over the weekend went splendidly (details to follow), and now it OFFICIALLY feels like the holiday season!

And, what's more, it's pouring today! It feels just like home :) After being outside in 'the wet', it's nice to get cozy at home in pj's and cuddle up to a cup of tea -- and Mariah Carey's fabulous renditions of the Christmas classics.

On Saturday, Nikki and I took a train over to Aix-en-Provence, where we met up with Laura, who took the train down from Paris for the weekend. We explored the booths at the Christmas market and had lunch out at a nice café.


After a nice morning and lunch in Aix, we hopped on a train back to Toulon to do some prep for our Sunday Thanksgiving feast. We made a trip to the grocery store for a few more supplies, then enjoyed some cookie baking, spiced wine, and FRIENDS Thanksgiving episodes to get us in the holiday spirit.


The evening view of the roundabout from Nikki's apartment

Sunday was a (perfectly) cold and rainy morning -- perfect for a day of baking! We headed out to the morning open-air market (arguably one of the most treasured "business-as-usual" features of life in Europe), where we picked up some veggies for our veggie platter and potatoes for our mashed and sweet potato dishes.


Toulon port on rainy Sunday morning and the market

And then the baking adventure began! We did lots of planning in advance, so we had all the supplies necessary. We had to be tricky coordinating all of the dishes with the small oven, and we pulled it off (like experts)!
And just in case you're not impressed enough already, let me just amaze you with a list of all that we prepared:
--veggie platter with dip! (even dip required creativity...food is quite different here in France)

--roasted chicken (her name was Henrietta), stuffed with an onion and garlic, salted/peppered/buttered/and basted every 20mins :)

--mashed potatoes (whipped up with the beater like Mom does)
--cranberries (thanks to Laura's trip to the American food store in Paris!)
--gravy (we are so awesome and such grown-ups we can prepare these complicated things...seriously, this was a liberating/confidence-boosting experience when it comes to food prep)
--sweet potato casserole (with cinnamon, mashed up, with marshmallows on top--so good! I was skeptical at first...never again)

--corn soufflé (like cornbread, only lighter/fluffier/mmm...)
--green bean casserole
Here's Laura with the crusts :)
--and don't forget....pumpkin pie!!! with homemade crusts and homemade whipped cream!


In case you couldn't tell already, I'm really proud of how it all turned out. It was lovely spending the weekend together baking and eating, eating, eating. Totally worth the effort! And it really felt like a kick-off to the holiday season, just like at home!

Before...

And after...