Outlet Shopping w/ Melillifer and Con

I'm on my way up to Boston to shoot a wedding this weekend, so I left NYC a little early (Tuesday night) so I could wake up Wednesday and do a little shopping with Con and Lilli since Felly is living it up in Hawaii. (I just saw Fel and Con over the weekend in LA, Connie came back to care for their child, Felix went from LA to Hawaii to hang with his dad - and is at this very moment probably huddled in some corner of the Ritz-Carlton Maui hiding from the hurricane. Karma for ditching your family? Maybe!)

(Totally jk, please be safe Felly!!!)

Before shopping you gotta eat. We went to downtown Chester, where Lilli had her very first Chicken Parm!

We then headed over to the Clinton Crossing Outlets to do some damage with the little heiress.

You can't teach someone this level of baby fierceness!

As you may or may not know...Lill rarely smiles...but she certainly looks happy with mom's wallet and credit cards in hand!

We did some damage!

Again she looks QUITE pleased with herself!

#tumi #ralphlauren #coach #colehaan #chickenparm

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Chester, CT with the Gastler/Bhandari/Palmisano clan.

Aunt Deb made a 25 lb turkey.



It was STUFFED with stuffing.



And it was Lillifer's first thanksgiving!



Yayyy! (So cute seeing Grandma photobombing/looking on so happily.)



This turkey smelled soooooy good.



Uncle Felly did the carving.



Kristen did the amazing table setting...





And then we poured turkey drippings into the gravy...



And it was the most delicious gravy I've ever had in my life.



YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY



We loves a turkey leg!



I'm so grateful to be welcomed by this amazing family.



Heaven on a plate.



Even Izzy got a few scraps.



AND then! Connie brought out a birthday surprise for me... Meatball "Cupcakes"!!!

The most beautiful delicious birthday cake I have ever had in my life!!!!!



Yayyy!





Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm off to Vegas!

Gastler Retreat 2010

The last time we went for a Gastler Retreat was July 4th of last year, so we were long overdue for another group visit.

We arrived at the Gastler estate greeted by 30 pounds of chicken parmesan.

This was just the first 10 pound vat...




These were the other two.



It was nuts!



After eating our faces off, we made a fire by the pool and played beergames into the night.







The next morning we awoke to brunch and had story time with special guest Elin Woods Nordegren reading from her new tell-all People Magazine article.




We played all day in the pool.






Played tennis and beanbag games in the evening.



And then out came foods and wine.




And we changed into our white clothes for a White Party Luau! (Labor Day is next week so it was our last chance to wear white.)







A spread of sausages and burgers and other grilleats and corn salad and chickpea patties for the herbivores and some tortellini and ohmygod I have no idea how Connie and Kristen are not majorly obese.





Everyone looked so pretty!




And we presented our favorite family with a beautiful canvas of themselves.



I love a white party!



Drunkfaced. We went outside to the poolhouse for dancing.




Todd found whipped cream.




So much fun.








Nick is hilarious.



More singing and dancing!









More whipped cream!






Priya was first to pass out. And someone had the idea that we should all touch her and sing to her as she slept.



SO strange.

We sang K-Ci and Jojo's "All My Life" at the top of our lungs.




That's all I remember.

Next thing I knew it was morning again and there were freshly baked banana breads and muffins and I was in heaven.

We spent the day playing Pool Volleyball and getting sunburned.




I love the Gastlers! Thank you for the best time ever!