October Highlights

Posted in Holidays, Life, Married Life, Novels by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

October was a big month for me. I dealt with a lot of different transitions as my husband and I entered our second month of living in the States. I revamped my blog, I discovered a lot of things about myself, and I came to some conclusions about where I want the future to take me.

Here are some of my highlights from the month of October:

I read 10 books this month!

I have now exceeded my 2014 reading challenge goal of 45 books by reading 65 total.

Favorite Read:

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

As always, Morgan Matson’s writing impacted me deeply. This book more so than her other two. It’s one of those books that I label as “life-changing.”

Least Favorite Read:

The One and Only by Emily Giffin

Normally I don’t post negative reviews, but I couldn’t even finish reading Emily Giffin’s latest book. It’s really long, slow-moving, and morally questionable.

Favorite TV Show:
As hinted at by this post, my husband and I started watching Supernatural and we’re hooked! We’re already halfway through the second season. I love Sam & Dean!

But on a lighter note, Green Gables Fables is my favorite current YouTube series and a couple of weeks ago they released this video which has been my favorite of the series so far. If you’re not familiar with Anne of Green Gables, this is the follow-up to my favorite scene from the book.
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/r732LUuTiEk” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

Most Popular Post:
Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Totally Want To Be For Halloween
But my post on Sleepy Hollow last year was also really popular this month.

Favorite Memories From October:

Trick-or-Treaters!! This is probably the first Halloween I was able to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, and I never thought I would enjoy it so much! At first I was worried we wouldn’t have any kids come by, because this neighborhood is fairly small and out in the middle of the woods. But we actually had quite a lot! And they all had such amazing and cute costumes. And Solo was there to greet each kid that said “Trick-or-Treat!” and I think they were more into petting him than getting any candy :)
This month I also got to spend a lot of time with my family, which I really needed. Even though we didn’t do anything big or exciting, it as a lot of fun just watching football with my dad and brother, going shopping with my mom, and going to the movies or out to dinner with everyone.
Earlier in October Matt finally received his green card! Now if only we could find jobs…

November To Be Read:

Things I’m Looking Forward To In November:

This week I have a job interview! It’s my first positive result from my job search so far. I’ve applied to so many jobs and received a few negative responses, but yesterday I finally received some good news. I know nothing is guaranteed yet, but it’s still encouraging to make it this far.
Next weekend is YALL Fest! It’s my first book conference/event and I’m going with my friend Regina @ The Sunflower Pages. There will be several of my favorite authors there, but I think I’m most excited about Rainbow Rowell and Ann Brashares. I’ll post all about it afterwards!
This is the month of THANKSGIVING! Last year I did my daily 30 Days of Thankfulness posts, which I won’t be doing again this year, but I encourage you all to think about what you’re thankful for this month & to share those things with others :) I’m thankful for my family, because without them I’d be lonely, miserable, and homeless.

What were some of your favorite highlights from October?

29Oct2014

Autumn Afternoons & Pumpkin Patches

Posted in Holidays, Married Life by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Last week, my husband, my mom, and I took advantage of a lovely autumn afternoon and visited a local pumpkin patch to scope out some perfect jack-o-lantern candidates.

We found a quaint little rustic farm where they had 3 acres of pumpkins to choose from!

We each picked out a pumpkin and then had a lovely chat with the farmers, who told us that it only takes a few months to grow their pumpkins.

And then it was carving time! Matt and I both picked Disney stencils, big surprise ;)

Rapunzel for me, and Mickey Mouse for him.

Have you carved any pumpkins yet this season? Show me a pic in the comments!

28Oct2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Totally Want To Be For Halloween!

Posted in Holidays, Novels by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

toptentuesday This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish, is all about Halloween! Last year I shared with you all my Top Ten picks for Halloween reading and today I’m talking about ten characters I’d love to dress up as. Some of these characters I have already impersonated before, as the pictures will show, but I love them so much I wouldn’t mind wearing those costumes again!

Top Ten Characters I’d Like To Be For Halloween

Lola from Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins- Anybody who’s read this book knows how awesome it would be to dress up as Lola. I mean, she dressed up as Marie Antoinette for a school dance! Lola never wears the same outfit twice and each one is her own special creation that reflects her mood for that day. The thing I’d love most about dressing up as Lola would be wearing a really cool wig!

Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – Ginny is my favorite HP character (welllll…that’s kind of a lie, because Sirius is also my favorite, but Ginny is the HP character who I’d most want to be). After years and years of wanting a reason to dress up as Ginny, my friends and I finally agreed on dressing up for the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It was a super simple costume, but I totally felt like Ginny all night :) I even had my wand from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to make my costume complete. My two best friends dressed up as Luna Lovegood and Dobby! It was so much fun.

Rapunzel from Tangled – I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my biggest dreams is for my husband and I to cosplay Flynn Rider & Rapunzel. We both already feel so much like these characters, and Tangled is one of our favorite movies of all time…all that’s missing is for us to actually be Flynn & Rapunzel! Sure we could go buy costumes but we want to do it BIG. One day we’ll throw an epic Disney costume party (or we’ll go to Comic Con) and I will finally get to be Rapunzel :) (Side note: we did have a Disney costume party this summer, which I will be blogging about soon, and we got to dress up as two of our other favorite Disney/bookish characters which was so much fun!!)

Robin Hood – Another of my favorite characters whom I’ve already dressed up as, but I’d do it again because it was a blast, was Robin Hood! This photo is back from 2008, when I went to a British Invasion party. The costume I used in this photo was actually from a Peter Pan costume…they are very similar if you think about it. The rest of the costume was simple, and my favorite part was the bow & arrow (although I did love wearing those green tights with my suede boots)! My brother and I would take turn hitting each other with the suction-cupped arrows for months after Halloween.

Edgar Allan Poe – My brother actually suggested this costume idea, and I agreed that it would be really fun! It’s fitting, too, since I live an hour from Baltimore, the city where he died & which named its NFL team in his honor. If I dressed up as Poe, I would go around quoting some of his creepier lines and see how long it would take for people to figure out who I was. I think Michael Sheen makes an excellent Poe impersonator in this photo :)

Things 1 & 2 from Dr. Suess’s The Cat in the Hat – Ok, one more costume that I’ve already done. I’m repeating myself a lot, but being Things 1 & 2 is so much fun. My two best friends and I did The Cat in the Hat one year and to stay in character we just went around terrorizing everybody. 15 minutes into the party and we were ready for bed. Next time I’ll jump around less ;)

Tris from Divergent by Veronica Roth – I think the coolest thing about the Divergent world is the factions. I knew right away that if I was in Tris’s world, I would also be a Divergent, and I would have also most likely picked Dauntless. I love the characters’ boldness, and their outfits, and their tattoos! My husband also loves them–he thinks Four’s tattoos are awesome as well. This would be a really simple last-minute costume to do: black shirt, black pants, black shoes, and a cool bird tattoo.

Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl – Willy Wonka is a total nut job, but it sure would be fun to dress up like him for Halloween. Either Johnny Depp or Gene Wilder’s version would be cool, as long as I get to wear a velvet suit jacket and carry around a cane. And you can bet that I’d bring a big bag of Wonka candy to give to all of my friends.

D’Artagnan from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas – I think this would be an awesome group costume idea. Cool hats, mustaches, and swords! Plus, I really like wearing tights. D’Artagnan has always been my favorite, but I wouldn’t mind being any of the Musketeers.

Poison Ivy from the Batman comics – Sometimes villains make the best costumes, don’t they? I have always loved Uma Thurman’s portrayal of Poison Ivy, probably because of her outfits, honestly. Clearly, I have a thing for tights, but I also love dressing up as redheaded characters. If I ever go to a Superheroes vs. Villains party, I will most likely go as Poison Ivy :)

There are ten characters I’d love to dress up as for Halloween! Did you like any of my choices? Which character would you choose?

31Dec2013

2013 Wrap Up Post: Most Interesting Search Engine Terms

Posted in Disney, France, Holidays, Novels, Work by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Greetings from Florida! This post is coming from the good ‘ol Sunshine State, where I will be until tomorrow. Our trip to the States has been wonderful thus far, and I am quite sad that we will be headed back to la France in a week, but it will be nice to see our puppy again after so long.

This post is also coming from our brand new iPad that my parents surprised us with for Christmas! It is convenient writing from here :)

I was genuinely shocked!

Check back later next week for my “Visit to the States Bucket List” (yes I made one before flying over here–I know all you expats can relate), but for now enjoy this fun little piece all about the most interesting search terms that have brought readers to my blog. I can’t take credit for this idea, but hopefully it will bring you some smiles all the same :)

work is not very hard – I don’t know anyone who can agree with this one, especially not any of the teachers I work with!
interesting facts about parcheesi – umm…what?
what is the best portrayal of mr rochester in a jane eyre movie – ahh! I like this question, and I think I answered it in this post, but out of the four adaptations I watched, I would have to say Toby Stephens in the 2006 BBC adaptation was my favorite portrayal. BBC always does well :)
maleficent stained glass disneyland paris – don’t mind if I do:
Inside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland Paris
an american in france novel – maybe one day I’ll get around to writing one…but today is not that day.
jimmy durante song in who’s got mail – those songs are awesome, right?? Here are the links to As Time Goes By and Make Someone Happy
5 month australian shepherd – well, if you insist :)

This is how he still likes to wake us up each morning :)

And there you have it! Maybe next year will turn up some funnier searches :) Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! I myself hope to get back into blogging more often in the new year; right now I’m too engrossed in library books!

19Dec2013

Favorite Christmas Flicks

Posted in Holidays, Travel by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

We made it safe and soundly to the States this week! It was a hectic last 48 hours in France, but everything managed to work itself out and here I am, sitting at my parents’ house getting ready to publish this post about my favorite Christmas movies!! I don’t know about you, but I need to get myself back into the Christmas spirit–before we left Tuesday morning, we had to take down our Christmas tree and pack up the ornaments. It’s a real tree, so fire hazard and all…but it really messed with me psychologically; I left France feeling like Christmas had already passed! Fortunately we were bombarded with Christmas decorations, lights, and music when we arrived in the airport here, but I wouldn’t mind watching a few of my favorite holiday films before the actual big day ;)

Looks like childhood :)

The Original Television Christmas Classics

Who doesn’t love these movies?? I loved watching them every year growing up. My two favorites were the stop-motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (I just wanna cuddle with Rudolph–he’s so adorable!) and Frosty the Snowman. Just hearing Jimmy Durante singing the theme song makes me happy. Sadly, for years I was haunted by the villain who locked Frosty up in that greenhouse. He was so mean! But I still love it :)

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

I love Dr. Seuss, and The Grinch is such a classic story, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to watch or read it. The old cartoon version is my favorite, but I also like the Jim Carrey version every now and again. And the Grinch song! So funny: “Mr. Gri-inch! You’re a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce!” Yum…? ;)

“Keep the change, ya filthy animal!”

Home Alone

This will always be a Christmas classic :) Although the premise isn’t exactly realistic, does that really make it any less enjoyable?? My favorite part is definitely the “Rockin’ Around the Christmas” tree scene. I can’t explain why exactly, but I was always fascinated by the mechanics of it all. Wish I could have been that inventive as a kid, but then again…if my parents forgot me at home, I probably would have had a breakdown!

“This is a sick world we live in! Sick people!”

Jingle All the Way

I think you had to watch this as a kid to be able to enjoy it as an adult, because if you decide to give it a chance now you’ll probably think it’s rather stupid. BUT, if you were like me and watched it repeatedly on VHS each December, you’d love to quote the lines every so often :) Plus, it’s bittersweet seeing Phil Hartman in his ridiculous character on-screen…

Elf

Elf

I loved watching Will Ferrel on SNL “back in the day”, but unfortunately I have never been a big fan of his films. Elf is the exception :) Besides all of the hilarious lines, there’s also Zooey Deschanel and Peter Dinklage (yes, I love him!) to enjoy. Plus, it has a wonderful soundtrack!

While You Were Sleeping

Forget Christmastime…I can watch this movie any time of year. I love these types of 90s chick flicks: the simple yet entertaining plot lines, the lovable and relatable actresses, the ever-so-stylish high-waisted jeans (as seen on Bill Pullman here). But seriously, I love this movie :)

You've Got Mail You’ve Got Mail

Another 90s chick flick I absolutely adore. What’s not to like about Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks? I also love Sleepless in Seattle as well, but I think between the two, You’ve Got Mail is my fav, despite the fact that it is incredibly dated (I mean, I don’t even know anyone who uses AOL nowadays). And technically this movie isn’t limited to the holiday season, but it’s still one of those feel-good comedies I like to watch while I’m curled up with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate :)

The Shop Around the Corner

This is actually the movie that You’ve Got Mail is a remake of (and they’re both based on a Hungarian play). Classic black-and-white film, Jimmy Stewart, Pride and Prejudice type love story: if you enjoy any of those three things, you’ll love this movie. Personally, I have a huge crush on Jimmy Stewart, and when my friend told me about this film I went home and watched it that very night. If you’ve seen either this film or You’ve Got Mail, it’s fun to compare the similar scenes that are in both of them. My favorite is the restaurant scene :)

“Buffalo gals won’t you come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon…”

It’s A Wonderful Life

While we’re on the subject of Jimmy Stewart, I might as well talk about my absolute favorite Christmastime movie: It’s a Wonderful Life. There are so many things I adore about this film. Our new tradition is, right after Thanksgiving, to set up our Christmas tree and all of our decorations, and then eat Christmas cookies as we watch this movie. It’s a bit of a tear-jerker, but I always feel so incredibly happy after watching it!

We’re here!” “Wow, that really was just around the corner…” LOVE THIS SCENE

Love Actually

One of the best Christmas movies ever made (and another one that I watch all year round) is Love Actually. I love so many things about this film (with a couple of exceptions, like Billy Bob Thorton…gross): I love the way Hugh Grant says “Natalie”, I love Colin Firth’s story line, I love Emma Thompson!, and I especially love singing Bill Nighy’s character’s ridiculous Christmas song (and I do sing it, every time someone says, “I feel it in my fingers/toes/etc.). My best friends and I love watching this movie late at night as we squeal over the cheesy romance and laugh at the ridiculous British humor. If It’s a Wonderful Life is my all-time favorite Christmas film, Love Actually comes in at number 2!

What are your favorite holiday films? Did any of yours make my list?

5Dec2013

‘Tis the Season to Be Jolly!

Posted in France, Holidays, Recipes by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Last Monday (November 25th) we turned our apartment into our own personal winter wonderland! I know it was technically before Thanksgiving, and usually I always wait until after my favorite Thursday of the year before even listening to Christmas music, but this year I was aching to get into the holiday spirit! And besides, we had our Thanksgiving the Sunday before the actual day, so I wasn’t really breaking my own rules ;) Plus, we’re leaving for the States on December 17th, so we wanted at least 3 weeks to enjoy our Christmas decorations.

I am so happy we decided to decorate our living room with reds, whites, blacks, and dark browns, because it totally made it possible for us to put up a red-white-and-silver woodsy theme for our tree! The color red never used to be pleasing to me, but when I was a Junior in college, our apartment was furnished with this amazing red corduroy couch that I fell absolutely in love with. Ever since then, it was my dream to have one of my own, and when we moved to our new apartment, Matt found me one that even came with a matching ottoman! Major husband points :)

So last Monday evening, we went out and bought our first real tree together (last year we only had room for small, fake ones), and it’s so cute and adorable! French Christmas trees are pretty different from the giant and full ones I’m used to back in the States, but the one we found is perfect!

It’s always so hard to make a Christmas tree look as beautiful on camera as it looks in real life, but at least you can see most of our Disney ornaments from this picture ;)

Ornament

After setting up our tree, nativity scene (‘crèche’ en français), and various Christmas decorations, we ate our Thanksgiving leftovers (which is half the fun of Thanksgiving!), and then curled up to watch It’s a Wonderful Life (my favorite Christmas movie of all time!) and munch on some tasty Chocolate Peppermint Cookies I whipped up. These cookies were so delicious I’m sharing the recipe I found with you (including my alterations):

Mmm :)

I found the recipe here, but I made the following alterations:
• I did not use chocolate chips; instead I used 1 cup of Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips (the peppermint taste was strong)
• Judging from the picture, you can also see that I did not make the glaze the recipe calls for.

The cookies were a blend of crunchy and chewy, and with the Andes chips I used, the peppermint flavor was strong, so if you make this recipe yourself be careful not to add too much unless you want your cookies tasting like toothpaste ;)

Hope you all are having a wonderful December so far :) Since we’ve put up our Christmas decorations, we have only had one calamity happen–Solo got so excited when we came home Tuesday night that he ran into our tree and knocked it completely over, which caused several ornaments to break :( But don’t worry, after a bit of a time-out, he was forgiven…

Our tree has since been restored to its jolly Christmasey self :)

2Dec2013

Thanksgiving in France!

Posted in France, Holidays, Recipes by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am a little late in publishing this post, but there is a perfectly reasonable explanation…I have been rereading Catching Fire and Mockingjay and for any of you who have already read those novels, you can understand my procrastination. But tonight I’m abstaining from reading until I get this post up!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my husband’s family the Sunday before the actual big day, and for my first time solo-cooking/baking, everything turned out exceptionally well! Understandably, there were some dishes that weren’t a hit with everyone (pumpkin pie is a very American dish, after all), but there were also a couple that were nearly wiped clean! Here was our menu (for future Thanksgivings):

Turkey – I combined these two recipes (here & here), and although I was a little grossed out from handling raw turkey, the meat was perfectly moist and Matt has already told me I have to make it like that again next year. Putting the vegetables at the bottom of the tray made the entire kitchen smell like delicious turkey soup all morning :)
Mashed Potatoes – very simple recipe here. Mashed potatoes are one of the easiest things to make.
Browned Butter Sweet Potato Casserole – I made this recipe twice (we celebrated two different Thanksgiving meals last week). With my in-laws I didn’t brown the butter (mainly because I was pressed for time), and honestly I thought it tasted worlds better without that browned nutty-butter flavor, but it’s up to you. Everyone raved about the plainly melted butter version, so that is the one I’ll be sticking to for future Thanksgiving meals.
Green Bean Casserole – I take it back, this is the easiest thing to make since you don’t even need to follow a recipe. If you’ve ever had green bean casserole, it’s extremely simple to make yourself. We found fried onions at a Lidl here a few months back, and although they don’t have cream of mushroom soup here, they do have mushroom sauces, which probably made it taste better. This was the second favorite dish of the day, after the sweet potatoes.

Oh my, just looking at this photo makes me want to eat it all over again!

Apple and Onion Stuffing – Recipe here. Originally I wanted to make these into muffins, but I only had paper muffins cups and no muffin tin so the muffins wouldn’t hold. I think I was the only one who really liked this dish (I loved it, actually), so next year I may have to make two different types of stuffing…oh darn ;)
Cranberry Sauce – Because we couldn’t find fresh cranberries here (not very French apparently), I found a recipe using dried cranberries instead. It wasn’t my absolute favorite, but it was still decent. Next year I may have to have my mom mail over the good old-fashioned canned cranberry sauce (seriously though, I love that stuff).

I can’t tell you how many times someone got hit in the face with the football…

After stuffing ourselves with all that goodness, we moved on to a couple of activities! Thanksgiving Bingo, which was fun but next time I’ll have to find something that lasts longer than 2 minutes. It was a good vocabulary exercise for all the Frenchies though ;)

After that we played some “paper football” (I guess that’s what it’s called?). It was fun seeing everyone flick a paper triangle at each other’s faces! We had a little tournament, which neither Matt nor I won, despite the fact that no one else had ever played before. But I always love those types of competitive games :)

Overall we had a marvelous Thanksgiving celebration. I’m so grateful that I was able to share my favorite holiday with my French family! They were really open and welcoming of my traditions and hopefully they’ll want to celebrate with us again next year!

And now it’s Christmastime!! If I don’t end up procrastinating again, tomorrow I’ll be posting about all of the decorating we did last week :)

29Nov2013

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 26-30

Posted in Faith, France, Holidays by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

I have been rather busy this week and every night, by the time I get home, I have barely enough energy to put myself into bed. So my apologies for slacking so much on my thankfulness posts. I am still thankful for many things! So here are the last 5 posts of the month, all wrapped up nice and neatly in one simple blog post:

Holidays that revolve around family – Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter…it’s always fun to celebrate holidays surrounded by family (and family also includes close friends!). I’m once again thankful for being able to celebrate Christmas with my family in the States this year! It has been 2 years since I’ve seen most of them!!

Seasons – I LOVE seasons. In Florida our seasons are limited: there’s summer, hotter summer, and then if you live up north you’ll get a cold, dry winter for a couple of months in between a short autumn and an even shorter spring (literally less than 2 weeks). But where I live right now we have equal seasons! What a concept :) I just love seeing nature change constantly but slowly throughout the year.

Owning a car – You don’t really need a vehicle to get around over here in the Grenoble area, but it has been such a blessing to us to own a car this past year. We went for about 6 months or so without owning a car and I remember quite vividly having to walk to the train station every other week because half of the tram line was out of service during the summer. But now we have a car :) and we’re able to drive other people around as well, something that I have always loved doing since my freshman year at FSU when I was dependent on other people giving me rides. So thank You God for blessing us with a car!

Christmastime – I admit, we decorated our apartment for Christmas Monday night, the day after our first Thanksgiving celebration of the week. I will try to have that post up tomorrow hopefully :) I have already been listening to Christmas music since mid-November! I couldn’t stop myself after the first snow fell, but we abstained from buying a tree until this week so we could have 3 full weeks of Christmas decorations in our apartment before we leave for the States.

All of you readers! – And last, but certainly not least, I am very thankful for all of you who read and comment on my blog! I am thankful for the friends I have made and the conversations I have enjoyed having through the blogosphere. I’ve had this blog for nearly 2 years now, but until this year I didn’t really keep up with my posting but I am thankful for doing that now :)

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and a wonderful November! May the rest of your year continued to be filled with thankfulness and blessings :)

25Nov2013

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 24 & 25

Posted in Faith, Holidays by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

thankfulness Yesterday and today I have been thankful for my family.

I know I already wrote posts for my husband and for my in-laws, but I am also very thankful for my loving and always supportive family :)

We are by no means a perfect family, but who would want that? No, our family is weird, quirky, sarcastic, and everything that is not normal! And I love that.

I’m thankful for my parents who have supported every single choice I have ever made, whether they agreed with it or not. There have been times that I will never forget when they gave me hope when I was feeling hopeless. They taught me the importance of working hard and not just expecting everything to come my way.

And I also have two great siblings who I miss seeing regularly. I remember all the under-the-table forts we used to make together and all the pretend games of school we would play. And even now, I love that we can tease each other about anything and everything (and we do!) :)

I’m very thankful that God has given me the family that I have, and I’m very very excited that I will be seeing them in less than a month for Christmas!!

At our wedding 2 years ago :)

24Nov2013

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 23

Posted in France, Holidays by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

thankfulness Today I am thankful for my in-laws.

Tomorrow (really, that’s already today for me), we’re having a Thanksgiving feast with my husband’s family. And it really is going to be a feast; if all goes as planned, we’ll have turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and my mother-in-law made a zucchini casserole, too (so France could be represented as well!). I know that is a whole lot of food for 8 people, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I couldn’t part with anything on the menu.

I’m thankful for my in-laws for so many reasons, the least of which being that they wanted to be apart of our Thanksgiving celebration and that they graciously paid for all of the food (my mother-in-law said that she’d rather pay for it than cook it haha).

But besides that, my in-laws have lovingly welcomed me into their family. And I’m not only talking about my husband’s parents, but his brothers and my sister-in-law as well. All of them have done so much in helping me adjust to living in France; there’s no way I could adequately thank them for that. I would honestly be lost and miserable if Matt and I had chosen to live in another region of France, one that was on the other side of the country where we couldn’t spend time with his family like we’re able to here.

I can’t wait to celebrate my favorite American tradition with my favorite Frenchies tomorrow, and I hope they enjoy the day as well :) Now off to bed because I have to rise bright and early to butter up the turkey!

macarons & paperbacks

Blogging about my love for books, baking, & France.

Category Archives: Holidays