Weekend Recap!

What a great weekend!  We decided to celebrate my birthday on Friday night.  I hate when your birthday falls on a Monday.  You can't go out and celebrate as you normally would.

Since I knew we were doing dinner and drinks on Friday, I was smart enough to cancel my Barry's class for Saturday morning.  Thank goodness.  Saturday morning/early afternoon was spent sitting on the couch doing nothing.  I take that back, I did get up to go get a 60 minute massage.  Then came back and continued doing nothing.  This is very rare.

Anyway, this year's birthday dinner was spent at Gramercy Tavern.  The setting is slight more classic than restaurants we typically go to, but it was super cozy.  Especially on a rainy Saturday night.

There was a more casual bar area upfront that we'll definitely be trying sometime in the near future.  It seemed like a great place to grab a drink and a small bite.

We opted for the traditional pre-fixed menu which included some amazing dishes.

After dinner we dropped by ABC Kitchen for a quick nightcap.  

Needless to say, we're getting old and headed home after one additional drink.  This place is a lot bigger inside than I thought it would be.

Most restaurants that offer a pre-fixed menu give you something to go such as chocolates or macaroons.  Gramercy Tavern took it one step further and provided us with a oat muffin which ended up tasting like coffee cake.  It was delightful.  Even more delightful since I didn't have to cook breakfast on Saturday morning.

After a full-day of recuperating, we had a friend's housewarming party Saturday evening.  Great time, with great friends in what I must say is a gorgeous apartment.

Definitely was a slow starting Sunday as well.  We both had a little too much fun.

On our walk over though, I did get this amazing shot of the sunset.  It was a perfect Saturday night.

We have a short week ahead, thank goodness!  It is officially wedding season.  :)

xx,

KMH

Weekend Recap: Thanksgiving!

What a great holiday!  I am most certainly not ready to go back to what is bound to be a very busy week.  Between book club (we are reading Brain on Fire), a girls night, a work holiday party and friends in town, I'm going to be exhausted by Sunday!

We hosted our first Thanksgiving this year and it was a lot of fun.  I long for the day where we have a big house and a dining room that allows for us to entertain a larger number of guests.  I think we improvised well in our small place though.  

Of course we started with a cheese plate before dinner.

After a mini panic attack that the table we purchased wouldn't work, it ended up working out very well!  I am so pleased about how the everything turned out.  I ordered the runner from Etsy and the chargers from Pier 1.

Fresh flowers are always a great idea and a must when putting a table together. 

Thanksgiving is the only time of year that I don't feel terrible about piling endless amounts of food on my plate. I definitely went to a hardcore workout on Friday after this feast.

Clearly the food was good...everyone cleaned their plates.

After at least 2 consecutive days of eating like food didn't have calories, I took a break and decorated for Christmas.  Even though we aren't home for too long before heading back to KC, I still love how homey it makes our place feel.

It doesn't appear that the eating and drinking marathon for the holidays will be letting up anytime soon.  Fitting in healthy lunches and dinners and working out 4-5 times a week is going to need to be a must.  

I hope everyone has a great week!

xx,

KMH

Weekend Recap: Octoberfest!

Another great weekend for the books!  We spent a lot of time outdoors, which is nice because it's bound to get colder and colder going forward.

We knocked one thing off the Fall To Do List this weekend.  We headed to Octoberfest at Bear Mountain and had a great time.  So gorgeous!

We ran into our lovely engagement shoot photographer.  Check her site out if you're looking for a photographer!  She's awesome!

All-in-all, great weekend!

I even put chili in the crock-pot before we left; perfect meal to come home to after being cold all day.  We needed to bring our body temperatures back to normal.

(PS - That chili recipe is coming up!)

Have a great week!

xx,

KMH

Fall To Do List

Fall, my favorite time of year.  It is definitely a reminder of why I love New York so much.

There are so many amazing things to do year round, but some activities are just much sweeter when done in the crisp fall weather.

Here are a few activities I'd like to do before it gets too cold:

** Perfect a spiked cider recipe - This is very important!  However, it might be better to wait until it gets super cold.
 
** Apple picking - I have no idea what I would do with an excessive amount of apples we'd pick, but it always seems like a great idea.

** Winery - When wine is involved, it is always an option no matter the season.  I think it would be great to head-out of the city to a nearby vineyard, have a picnic and drink some wine.

** Picnic in Central Park - How amazing does a picnic sound in Central Park on a slightly chilly fall day.  You could bring a spiked cider (hence wanting to perfect the recipe) and cheese.  Sounds very picturesque to me.

** Pumpkin picking - This would probably go hand-in-hand with apple picking, but it seems like a classic October activity. 

** Make apple cider doughnuts.

I hope to get most of these checked off our to do list.  What's on your agenda this fall?

xx,
KMH

PS - We're knocking this off the fall to do list in a couple of weeks!  Hopefully the weather is perfect.