INTRODUCTION

I HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR. THERE IS SO MUCH TO CELEBRATE!

Living life with joy and gratitude alongside the people you love makes every day special and worthy of celebration. Impromptu barefoot-in-the-kitchen dance parties, a three-tier chocolate cake just because it’s Tuesday, and cotton candy–topped milkshakes to mark the end of summer vacation transform seemingly ordinary moments into the essential threads that weave together the fiber of who we are.

So many of my favorite, and profoundly pivotal, memories happened in the kitchen or around the dinner table. Eating steak and baked potatoes at the long farm table on the porch of our family’s lake house, the Thanksgiving meal overflowing on my mom’s kitchen island, pot roast served in my grandmother’s elegant Williamsburg dining room, pizza on the floor of my first apartment—so much of my life has centered around food and sharing meals with family and friends. My grandmother taught me how to set a table, and my mother taught me how to arrange flowers. But more importantly, they taught me the art of celebrating: how to create meaningful, unfussy gatherings—not without effort, but carried out with relative ease—that create lasting memories with the ones you love.

Now that I am a mom, I realize more and more that time is fleeting. It forces me to stop, take a breath, and remember how grateful I am that I have so much to celebrate. I want to always take the time to make loved ones feel special and create extraordinary celebrations to foster memories that will last a lifetime.

I set out to create a book that is not only beautiful but is also a guide to creating lifelong memories with your family and friends—inspiration to encourage more parties, more togetherness, more celebrations. It is my hope that the family suppers, holiday parties, and informal gatherings found in these pages will inspire you to live a little more life together with the ones you love.