I figured I would do a quick photo recap for you since I think you all know what we did… we ate a lot and we ate some more

Thursday morning we headed up to Rhode Island around 1030am.

Miss Ava napped! We we were lucky with no traffic and a smooth ride.

Our Rhode Island Thanksgiving was so much fun. We got to see all of Marc’s family and we couldn’t have asked for a better celebration.

Ava had fun playing and running around with her cousins.

and getting into trouble!

It was a fun day!

On Friday we celebrated back in Greenwich with my family for Thanksgiving #2.

The food was AMAZING, thanks mom!

Ava had so much fun seeing her other cousin Emily.

The holiday was all about spending time with family (and eating food). The rest of our long weekend looked like this….

Hanging around the house, snuggling, watching movies, and getting ready for Christmas. I did make it to the mall to do a few hours of shopping which was great!

How was your Thanksgiving?
Did you eat a lot?

Today we celebrate & give Thanks for “the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.”

Don’t get me wrong, I will indulge but I won’t be the one unbuttoning my pants or laying on the couch for 2 hours because I over ate.

I choose wisely. I love Turkey and gravy… and in case you don’t know me by now I am a POTATO lover.  So those items along with all the veggies will all be piled on my plate.

Don’t hate me when I tell you I don’t like PIE. People think I’m crazy but Thanksgiving desserts are not my thing. For as long as I can remember I never ate dessert on Thanksgiving. If someone made Chocolate chip cookies, I would eat one but usually there’s only pies:)

So on a healthy note, Last night I tried out a new veggie combo that would make a great side dish for Thanksgiving. Roasted butternut squash topped with Gorgonzola Cheese.

I took 1 pound of chopped butternut squash and drizzled it with oil & salt. Roasted in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees and then topped it with 2 tbsp of gorgonzola cheese right after they came out of the oven. It was yummy!

Here are some Tips for Beating the Holiday Bulge:

My day was wonderful and full of great food and great people. Instead of traveling to Rhode Island to be with Marc’s family our Doctor thought it was a smart idea to keep me local in case I were to go into labor! It was a lot less stressful not traveling and we enjoyed our time in Greenwich.

Thanksgiving morning started off with a trip to the YMCA to walk on the treadmill. I was overly happy with the large crowd of people getting a good workout in before the big meal. Although the roads were empty, there was definitely a party at the Y at 9am!!! After a nice 30 minute walk on the treadmill I headed home to get changed and ready for the day.

My mom’s friend Debbie (pretty much her sister from another mother) had a huge thanksgiving meal planned for 30 people. We were lucky enough to join the fun. She insisted on not bringing anything but I made a pumpkin bar dessert!

Take a look at my thanksgiving plate… my eyes were WAY bigger then my stomach. I keep forgetting I’m almost 38 weeks pregnant and there’s not much room in my stomach right now. I hate wasting food so I wasn’t happy about not finishing.

Here is a cute pic of Marc and I practicing to be parents.. how cute is Alessandro!!

Did you go shopping for Black Friday? I decided that I could wait for the shopping and there wasn’t anything I was dying to buy right away to face the crowds. Instead I dragged my family out for a long walk in the cold!! Baby G needs to make her exit soon and I thought I would help We walked for 45 minutes around Greenwich Avenue.. we heard Santa and his reindeer were gonna stop by but we never saw them!

In the afternoon, I started to decorate the house for Christmas!! I was so excited and waiting for Friday to roll around to put out the decorations!

Marc & I also cooked up a 2nd Thanksgiving Meal while we decorated because we wanted some turkey leftovers.  I guess you could say I was CRAVING more turkey.  Cooking a turkey and all the sides isn’t really too difficult it’s just time consuming and we were home so it really wasn’t stressful at all. We had everything done in 3 hours! Not bad and now we have food for the week.

THE TWIST on our Thanksgiving meal was that it was ALL HEALTHY!!! We made Skinny mashed sweet potatoes, corn, roasted asparagus, roasted green beans, whole wheat stuffing, mashed potatoes, & homemade gravy. I think the gravy was the only unhealthy part due to the fat content from the turkey drippings!

On the agenda for Saturday…. another LONG WALK and Picking out a Christmas Tree!!!

Baby G will be here in approximately 17 days! What is you guess on her arrival???

We all have something to be thankful for on this special day….

Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks and spending the day with family & friends. I love it!

I am thankful for a healthy life, an incredible husband, a loving family, supportive friends, a fit and healthy pregnancy, a dog that always gets excited when I get home, clients that keep me working hard at my job, food that somehow ends up on the table, everyone that reads and supports my blog, etc.. I can keep this list going but I gotta get cooking and ready for the big day!

I hope today is a healthy & happy Thanksgiving for all of you!