My Thanksgiving or A Strange Day to be a Vegetarian

Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday of mine.  I love the nostalgia it invokes, I love the smells of the meal cooking, I love sitting with my siblings in our pajamas, eating carrot bread and watching the parade.  This year we decided to do it a little differently.  As I just moved to the East Coast 2 weeks before the holiday it seemed silly for me to fly all the way home again to eat a meal with my parents.  Instead, on Wednesday I took the train down (over?) to Boston to spend the holiday with my little sister and dearest friend Marissa and her family.  This was my first Thanksgiving not spent at home in California, and it was full of joy and laughter and delicious food.  You may be wondering, "Ashleigh, if you have forsaken the eating of meat, what, pray tell, did you nosh on this most gastro-focused of days?" (sorry, I watched a lot of Deadwood over the weekend). An excellent question, certainly--Marissa's all to kind parents made salmon just for me so I could partake in the beautiful feast they prepared.  And even though I was eying the turkey and mashed potatoes the entire time, salivating like an idiot, my own food was so delicious that I was easily distracted.  Thanksgiving is a strange day to be a vegetarian, to be sure, but I made it through with hardly any trouble and a very full stomach.

I, like an idiot, left my camera at home so had to rely on my iPhone to capture the weekend, a mistake I won't likely make again.  Being without my SLR in a beautiful place like New England was pretty agonizing; I kept kicking myself all weekend.  Alas, here are some lovely shots from my cellular device.  Hope your holiday weekend was as magical as mine!

p.s. As you can see by the last row of photos, my sister and I made a sojourn to Hingham, MA with Marissa's family to Wahlburgers which is exactly what you think it is: the new burger joint owned and operated by Mark, Donnie and Paul Wahlberg.  It was a great time--I had yummy grilled cheese (they don't have vegetarian options yet), Steve Carrell was there (literally), and Hingham is right on the beautiful water.  Such a lovely day.