The Art of the Table: Hosting A Mini Thanksgiving

I am pleased to announce that i survived my first time hosting a holiday gathering. We hosted my sister and her boyfriend for a mini thanksgiving as our parents were out of town and it went much better than i thought. i hit the ground running at 6am to start cooking while john took over with the kids and finalized loose end around the house. I was probably a tyrant running around aiming for a perfection that does not exist with a 5 month old in my arms… but we did it and it was beautiful.

I decided on a menu a week beforehand and my goal was to bring together flavors that were Belgian inspired yet a nod to the traditional americana thanksgiving meal. Why Belgian you may ask? If you came across my about me page, i gave a little blurb about how my childhood was spent there and my sister was born in Belgium while our father was stationed there. it will always have a little piece of my heart. (We typically have a wide spread of Puerto Rican food at our parent’s over Thanksgiving and Christmas so this was a nice little switch up)

And now that i’ve hung up my hostess hat, away from the hustle and bustle of it all I realize that i could have chilled out a bit more. Don’t worry, i wasn’t completely in my head the whole time. after we sat down i was able to be fully present and we spent the day with full bellies, laughter, playing board games, crafting with the kids, and then my sister and i got our girl time in later on and binge watched stranger things to recap before December. In conclusion… the most important things don’t need to be rushed at all, but savored.