2nd Thanksgiving!

I got back from Boston on Saturday night and headed up to the Lake for family Thanksgiving. It was a gorgeous day that started with a great breakfast followed by a run and then the feast preparation. Delicious!The post feast walk to the point offered some phenomenal views.

Touring Boston!

On Friday we skipped the Black Friday madness and instead meet up with my good friend, and Boston native, Sheila for a tour around this great city. We started in the Garden, headed over to the Commons, took in the Freedom Trail, perused Quincey Market and Haymarket, and ended up in the North End for an authentic Italian dinner.
The Celtics were in town so we headed to the Garden to see if there were seats, but only singles were available.
But...this turned out to be a good thing as our dinner will go down in infamy. Sheila has 4 favorites in the North End...she said the most authentic was Massimino's and she could not have been more correct. The host, Sal, took an interest in our group - a 40yr old, loud Italian - and made the evening more than memorable.
It included free glasses of wine for Melissa and later Matt, as well as free dessert for the table. Not only that, he also walked us to the famous Modern Bakery (with a stop at his mom's house who was thankfully not home). Quite a night!
On Saturday the road warriors headed out early while Mer and I slept in and enjoyed a lazy morning. Later we met up with Steven for an afternoon at the Museum of Fine Arts and a delicious lunch at Flour Bakery.
Now back to Lake Geneva for Sunday Thanksgiving with my family :-)

Thanksgiving in Boston

After a wonderful Thanksgiving Eve concert at the Vic with Beth, Maggie, Sarah and the very talented Joshua Radin, I headed to Bean Town. *Side note: Josh went to Northwestern and had gone to see shows at the Vic about 50 times and this was his first time playing there.

Johanna and Melissa had driven earlier in the week...I chose to fly....so they picked me up at 10 when I landed and we headed to Cambridge to Meredith's - a friend from Chicago who is finishing her first term in Harvard Business School.We cooked, we lounged, we watched the parade, the dog show (featuring great commentary by Melissa and me), and football, and hosted two of Meredith's Aussie friends. It was excellent, healthy and just the right amount of food. YUM!After some naps we headed to Cheers (super touristy we know) but it was closed...sigh. So off to Volare for translucent cocktails and a lot of insight into the male dating mind - ha!

GRIP

I have started volunteering (finally, have been wanting to for awhile, just hadn't gotten myself in gear) with GRIP Outreach for Youth. LOVE IT!The goal is life on life mentorship with high school students in Chicago. These kids do not have it easy - poor schools, most of the time hard family lives, etc. So, they are matched up with a mentor who quite simply does life with them.What this looks like is a 3hr SLAM session every Monday - which involves team competitions (there are 4 teams...I am on green - go Zing!), a message, competitions for points (winning team each month gets a pizza party), etc. There are consistently about 100 kids and about 70-80 mentors so we're always looking for more!While SLAM is super fun, the main goal is time "Outside the Walls" with the kids, in whatever shape that takes. I hit it off with one of the girls last night, so I am excited to see where this relationship goes!

Live Lean Finale!

I kind of felt like today was the last day of "the Biggest Loser" - not that we have ever done such a production of weigh ins/measurements...but after a month of working out really hard and eating right, Live Lean came to an end.My stats:
-7.5lbs //-9.5 total inches // -2.5” waist // -2.25” hips //-.75” chest // -.5” each bicep //-1.5” each thigh

I can do 7 more push-ups in a minute (and 6 more of those on my toes instead of knees) and 3 more sit-ups in a minute.

All that is fantastic, but I am more happy about how good I feel, learning to upgrade food choices, experiencing a cleanse, and being surrounded by such determined and motivating coaches and "teammates."

About half of us are signed up for BootCamp in December...so more early morning, butt-kicking workouts are in our future!

Cooking Club - Harvest

This past Sunday marked our third Cooking Club - first was Italian, then French, this time the theme was Harvest. Ashley did a great job decorating with real leaves.
For the event, Molly made wheat bread, I made a spinach/pear/cranberry salad, Crystal brought wine, Chi Chi made sweet potatoes (with a spicy kick - red pepper and smoked paprika), Ashley made pot roast, and Lynne made apple crisp. Delicious!
Oh...and my favorite - mulled cider!! :-)

LUMINATE Launch Party!!!!!!

My wonderfully talented and creative friend Lynne launched her company's website and video tonight...and boy did she do it in style - a black tie gala!! Almost a year ago Lynne broke away from the security of the corporate world to found LUMINATE - a marketing company dedicated to spreading the light of non-profits and ministries locally, nationally, and globally.
Lynne has put her heart...and most of her time...into launching LUMINATE and the results are spectacular. What better way to celebrate than with friends, colleagues, and clients!
Joel (guy with the glasses) helped Lynne create her video and he really deserves a huge round of applause...check back soon as I'll post the video as soon as I figure out how.
Lynne left no detail unattended to for the party - my flash didn't let me capture this moment correctly, but for the first ever viewing of the video she had glow sticks for everyone and we turned off the lights - extremely creative!
Please spread the word...spread the light...about Luminate - an amazing organization that will certainly exceed expectations every time!! LUMINATE Marketing!