Tag: mombloggers

Grateful for Girls

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We have posted a lot about of Friendsgiving celebration last week. Between menu planning, tablescapes, grocery shopping and cooking, we totally wore ourselves out!

November is a month where people traditionally focus on gratitude. We love that because we are both glass half full sort of gals. Grateful and thankful are words that we use all the time, especially with our kiddos who are growing up in a crazy world. But, as we sat and reflected on our Friendsgiving day after everyone had gone, we realized how truly grateful we really are.

Since the dining table held 8 people, we decided we would each invite 3 friends. We had both met each other’s friends, but Stephi’s friends had never met Suzi’s invitees and vice versa. We weren’t nervous about it but hoped everyone would gel. Well, if you watch our IGTV (total shameless plus!!), you will see that our group of 8 women almost immediately acted like we had been friends for years. Everyone found commonalities in kids, jobs, hometowns, laughter. It was truly a beautiful thing to see.

So, in the spirit of gratitude, we want to express how truly grateful we are for our friends. Personally, we talk a lot about how amazing it is that we somehow ended up living next door to one another and have truly formed a sister-like bond. It’s special. We bring out the best in each other and we celebrate it. We love each other at our worst and lift each other up through tough times. And most important, we laugh. Hysterically. All the time. And it is so good for the soul.

Not only that, but now, we have been surrounded by this little tribe of women, these ride or die, bury the body and never discuss, love unconditionally and always tell you the truth sort of women. To say that we are grateful for our friends is an understatement. We weren’t able to invite every friend to our Friendsgiving this year for lots of reasons, but we hope that as we grow this blog, we can make it a bigger party every year to celebrate more and more of our awesome girl tribe!

But it bears repeating…. Becky, Jamie, Laci, Paige, Rachel and Sha, thank you so much for being the amazing women that you are and sharing that day with us! We love you!!

Friendsgiving Menu

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We both absolutely love to cook, so planning a menu for some of our best friends for Friendsgiving was so much fun! 

We did a lot of online research…. thinking about our guests, their preferences and most importantly, that we didn’t want to simply serve a typical Thanksgiving meal.  We wanted to use seasonal ingredients and flavors that echo the the holidays, but we will all be eating ourselves silly in just one week and we didn’t want to start too early 😉

Epicurious was a huge source of help for the menu.  They actually have a whole Friendsgiving post here that we used as a big source of inspiration.  You could literally use this entire menu for the most perfect party!

One of the big hits of the party were the Parsnip-Wrapped Devils on Horseback.  Despite the hilarious name, these little babies were CRAZY good and our guests loved them!  Bonus:  they are vegetarian, so a great option for anyone.  They are stuffed with blue cheese, but we think you could totally use goat cheese or something more mild if you don’t like the strong taste of the blue. 

For the main meal, we served the Stuffed Turkey Breast with Butternut Squash, Kale and Sausage from Epicurious along side these fabulous Candied Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon and the most beautiful salad ever created, the Persimmon and Burrata Salad with Sesame Candy, both courtesy of Food & Wine

The flavors were perfection together and no one felt overly full after this gorgeous meal.  A couple of tips that we learned:

  • The turkey recipe calls for boneless, skin on turkey breast.  When we go ours, one of the breasts was split in half and the other, the 2 breasts were attached.  (I mean, could we say breast anymore?!) The breasts (there we go!) that were attached rolled up much better and came out looking absolutely gorgeous!  The ones that were not attached were equally as delicious but the presentation wasn’t quite as pretty.  
  • We actually had planned to make the Shredded Brussels Sprouts Ricotta Toast, but in the chaos of the day, we totally mismanaged our time and about 10 minutes before the girls arrived, we hadn’t even started them yet!  WHOOPS!  We both wished that we could have had that brussells sprouts element in the day, but with how good the dates were, we don’t think anyone missed them.  And we definitely had plenty of food. 
  • Speaking of plenty of food, one of the best lessons we learned with this is to keep it simple.  Party planning is fun but it is also really stressful at times.  So, KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid!  Look at each recipe, take the timing into account, make as much as you can ahead of time and drink plenty of wine to get you through it 😉

Our Top 9 Stocking Stuffers for Girls!

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If you are anything like us, stocking stuffers can be a difficult task and always seem to be a last minute scramble!  So, to help you out this year, we have put together our favorite ideas for girls ages 4-12.  And the best part?  They are ALL available on Amazon Prime!

  1.  Custom Pop Socket – We LOVE the pop sockets on our phone and the personalized version would be so cute for your little lady’s phone or iPod!
  2. LOL Surprise Under Wraps Doll – Our littlest ones (5 &6) can’t get enough of the LOL Doll craze!  These fun little capsule-shaped series include a surprise doll that kids get to feel like a detective to discover.
  3. Hello Kitty Pez Dispenser – Who doesn’t love Pez?!  This cute little Gift Tin has 4 different Hello Kitty-themed dispensers and candy included.
  4. iTunes Gift Card – Our kids are constantly asking us to buy things on their phones and iPads.  Why not give them a little independence to choose on their own?  An iTunes gift card not only makes your life easier, but is also a great way to teach your kids about finances.
  5. Unicorn Puff Ball Keychain – Each one of our girls loves to attach cute little keychains to their backpacks and it makes it easier for us too because we can tell them apart in the sea of backpacks after school!  These cute little faux fur puff balls come in lots of colors, too.
  6. Emoji Wet Brush – Whether your munchkins have short or long hair, the Wet Brush is the ultimate pain-free detangler!
  7. Lil’ Gleemerz Doll – The Lil’ Gleemerz dolls are promising to be one of this year’s hottest holiday items.  They are adorable!  And their little light-up tails make for a great night light.
  8. Unicorn Snot Lip Gloss – Our girls are OBSESSED with makeup!  We love the unicorn branding but even more, we love that this is a cruelty-free product that we can feel totally comfortable with our little people putting on.  We *might* be accused of “sharing” it with them from time to time!
  9. Bath Bombs – Bath time can be a struggle sometimes, but when you offer the option of a rainbow colored, yummy smelling bath bomb it gets easier!  We love this big combo pack so that they last longer too.

We hope this list helps make Santa’s job easier this year! Happy shopping!

xoxo,

Stephi and Suzi

stocking stuffers