Monday Morning Gratitude

Hello Monday and all who read here. How was your weekend? Ours was nice and when I look at our December calendar I'm grateful for some less busy dates now. Linking today as usual with Holly and Sarah for their weekend recap postings. 

Thursday night we attended our third wine dinner in as many weeks. That is not the norm, but somehow November was event-ful. Literally. 

Thursday's dinner had a French theme and the food was wonderful. From the starter featuring quiche lorraine with black pepper puff pastry and a charred lemon hollandaise to it's conclusion, which was a chocolate eclair with Bavarian cream, dark chocolate, and whipped cream, it was all so good. 

It wouldn't be fall without my daily snapping of the sunrise. Autumn skies are some of the prettiest. 

Did I tell you that in last week's Hello Monday post? And the one before that too? Probably. I can't help myself. Nothing reminds me to feel grateful for a brand new day like a pinky pink sunrise sky. 

Friday evening our tiny town had a sip and stroll type of event with a few shops staying open later than they normally do and the downtown lights showing off.

We might live in a small town but they do Christmas lights right. There are a million (for real) and it's all set to music. You can walk through or tune your car radio to a particular station and hear the carols played. The big tree will be lit the week after Thanksgiving, and there are stalls where you can make s'mores on fire tables sitting in the street. It's a fun month to be downtown. 

Hubs and I went Friday night to check out the shops. I bought a Christmas gift and we walked through the tunnel of lights. I recommend. Really helps amp up your Christmas spirit. 

Look who we ran into...

After we walked and shopped we went to a local sushi place for dinner. We sat at the bar and relaxed. So enjoyable. 

Saturday hubs did yard work and I did housework and sorted out a few Christmas details that needed sorting. Our next door neighbors came for dinner and we made Smashburgers on the griddle which were delish. I made a caramel apple cake for dessert but forgot to take a photo of the finished product, which is pretty much par for the course here. This is just before it went into the oven. 

When it's baked you drizzle a little more caramel over the top, then add a dollop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. 

We love our next door neighbors and we have lots of the same friends and end up at a lot of the same events. Still we try to pencil in dinner or a glass of wine now and then, to really catch up on things. We're busy and all of our friends are the same. I don't know what I imagined this season would look like but I definitely imagined more of less lol. 

We have some friends who want to get us together with another couple for dinner and between everyone's travel schedules and already booked events and family commitments we've settled on a date in late February. Huh? My kids laugh because they know if they want us to stay with the grands while they travel they need to book early. 

Sunday hubs needed to preview some real estate properties and I went with him to weigh in since I also know the client well. More about that in another post. I'm looking forward this week to time with family, my favorite meal, and counting my blessings. 

p.s.-sunset skies are pretty great too.