It’s almost Thanksgiving! This is typically around the time of year that things begin to slow down for wedding photographers, but somehow, December will end up being my busiest month this year. I’m not complaining, though- I have two trips to New York scheduled for the week before Christmas, and everyone knows that Manhattan in December is MAGICAL!

We hosted Friendsgiving at our house this past Saturday with some friends from church, and it was so much fun! Matt made this incredible 20lb turkey, and it was something straight out of a Martha cookbook- perfectly golden all over. It was almost a shame to cut into it… but not really. One of the best parts of hosting Thanksgiving? Turkey leftovers for DAYS. We have a turkey carcass in the fridge that’s going to be boiled down for some seriously delicious soup later this week. I hope the turkey’s soul is sitting in turkey heaven taking comfort in knowing that we’ll be enjoying his/her sacrifice for days to come.

As always, lessons learned/events that transpired over the past week:

• If you’re not prepared to adopt a second pup, I don’t recommend visiting the animal shelter. I fell in love with a one-year-old German Shepherd, but we came to the conclusion that it’s just not a good time for us to bring another dog into our home. Break my heart, why doncha!
• But it’s ok- all I have to do is look at THIS Instagram to remind myself of how awesome Lily is 🙂
• It’s a good thing Black Friday is this week because my “no-Christmas-music-til-after-Thanksgiving” resolve it crumbling fast.
• Adding onto the previous point, is it to early to start burning Yankee candles that smell like Christmas trees? The name of the candle is “Balsam & Cedar,” so it’s not TECHNICALLY holiday-themed, right?
• I slept for 11 hours last night. IT WAS AMAZING! And this is how you know you’re not a young’in anymore: when you start bragging about how much sleep you got.

I got to hang out with this handsome guy yesterday!

…and thought this photo might make you guys laugh. This is my 8-year-old niece attempting to take a simple portrait with Willy the horse, but Willy was much more interested in the grass than he was in taking a photo.

Happy Monday! I’m off to shoot a ballerina session and am counting my blessings that it’s 70 degrees outside today!