Happy Friday, friends! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday last week. Did you celebrate locally? With friends and/or family? I flew down to Atlanta to spend time with both.
I’m usually one of those travelers who takes the earliest flight out, but for this trip I left at 6:15pm. Out of JFK. On one of the busiest travel days of the year. What was I thinking?! Thankfully, I left my office with plenty of time and I have Pre-√, so I strolled onto the plane stress-free with hot chocolate in hand. However, I was shocked at the amount of people who were grumpy, stressed, and all-around struggling. They must not have scheduled in enough time for their commutes, therefore ruining the first few hours of their holiday vacation. I hope their mothers also greeted them with Chick-Fil-A nuggets and a peppermint milkshake to put a smile on their faces!
On Thursday morning, we road-tripped up to Knoxville, Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with more family. We had a buffet lunch at Country Kinfolk Marketplace, Café, & Farm. This place was very picturesque – think mason jars and twinkle lights.
I packed my plate with delicious goodies like deviled eggs, macaroni & cheese, and mashed potatoes. The dessert options were endless too. (Can I get a *hooray* for a dessert buffet spread?!) What did you eat for your holiday meal?
My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is Knoxville’s Fantasy of Trees at the Convention Center downtown. Fantasy of Trees is a holiday event benefiting the local children’s hospital. They have a variety of vendors as well as beautifully decorated trees, wreaths, and gingerbread houses available for auction. How beautiful is this Cinderella themed tree? #treegoals
My family cannot remember what year our first Fantasy of Trees visit took place. However, one thing is for certain – I will never get tired of making the holiday crafts even if I’m older than most of the volunteers running the stations. Cookie decorating is always my final craft station. Can you blame me?
I won’t wake up early for Black Friday shopping, but I will jump start my day for doughnuts! My grandmother and I hit up Duck Donuts. This franchise serves fresh, hot, made-to-order doughnuts each day. While the base is a traditional cake doughnut, you get to add your glaze, topping, and drizzle. I picked peanut butter glaze with hot fudge drizzle and chocolate sprinkles. I paired that with a more festive pumpkin glaze with a crumble topping. Yum!
If it’s sounding like all we did on this trip is eat…you’d be correct! After doughnuts, we grabbed brunch at Tupelo Honey Café in Downtown Knoxville. For appetizers, we ate biscuits with blueberry compote, pimento cheese with chips & carrots, and fried green tomatoes because…we’re southern, y’all!
I had a Cobb salad for my main meal.
After stuffing ourselves, we checked out the local boutiques and saw Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald which gave me all those holiday Harry Potter feels.
On Saturday, we grabbed breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my sister before heading home to Atlanta. I can’t remember the last time I was in a CB, but it was a lot of fun exploring the gift shop as usual.
That evening we attended an engagement party for Donna, my best friend from high school. Donna and her fiancé, Nate, got engaged earlier this year in Antarctica in front of a crowd of penguins! Their engagement party was just as magical. It was so fun catching up with friends and Donna’s family!
On my last day of Thanksgiving vacation, my mom and I decided to get our sweat on! We kicked off Sunday morning with an 8:30 Pilates class at Club Pilates. I love a good stretch on the Reformer!
After, we drove directly to Starbucks SoulCycle Buckhead for a cardio sesh with Lance. As someone who dreamed of a SoulCycle in Atlanta when I worked for the company years ago, it was so neat to see the studio doing well. It’s huge and there’s tons of parking, so I definitely recommend it if you live in the Atlanta area.
I ended the day sipping hot chocolate while simultaneously doing laundry, working on my laptop, and watching a cheesy Christmas movie with my mom. (I recommend Christmas Crush on Netflix!) After a few short hours of sleep, I was back at the airport for one of the first flights out. Back to business as usual…
Let me know how your holiday was in the comments below!
Stay fit and fabulous,
A
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