Thanksgiving Memories from Our Employees
I’m always so excited to see photos of our staff’s Thanksgiving Day celebrations.
Every year before Thanksgiving, I send out an email to all our employees, extending my very best wishes for a safe and lovely holiday. I also urge them to take photos of their table settings, their feasts, their families and their friends. And, every year, I’m always so thrilled to see the pictures and to read the many stories that accompany them.
Many of you have also commented on how much you look forward to seeing our annual Thanksgiving gallery, so here it is - enjoy.
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- Project marketing manager, Emily Archer, took this “before” photo of an apple pie she made for her family’s Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She used two of my recipes – a brown butter apple pie recipe for the filling and the “Fall Leaves” pate brisee recipe from the November 2009 issue of “Living” – such a beautiful picture.
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- I loved her first photo so much, I asked if she had any more – here is the pie before she added the “fall leaves”.
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- And here it is right before it went into the oven. Emily said she didn’t have any of the finished pie because her guests arrived just as it was coming out of the oven. By the time she remembered to take a photo, the pie was mostly gone! I bet it was delicious.
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- Our SVP managing director of corporate development, Dan Castle, shared this photo of his daughters taken on Thanksgiving Day – baby Remi and big sister, Camryn. They’re growing fast!
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- This is our director of financial planning and analysis finance, Dana Spitler. This year, he enjoyed a “Friendsgiving” on Fire Island. Dana, his husband, Wissam, and their dog, Butch, along with their friend, Will, took the ferry since there are no roads on Fire Island.
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- Here is the ferry in the harbor.
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- Since it is off season, all the stores and restaurants are closed on Fire Island. To get groceries they have to order online and have the ferry deliver the items to the house. The groceries all come in these totes.
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- This is Dana’s friend, Bobby, and Wissam. Dana and Wissam cooked all the food at their home and then went to another house to eat. “We had to pack everything up in a wagon to move the food. It was a very cold walk.”
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- Here’s a nice photo of Wissam, Matthew, Bobby, and Dana. “Here we are on the roof deck of our friend Matthew’s house at sunset.”
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- Here is Wissam and the lovely table setting Matthew set.
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- “And here is Will putting the last touches on the buffet. The mac and cheese, and the stuffing, were both Martha Stewart recipes.”
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- Here’s the first of many plates of food. It all looks so tasty!
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- The group posed for another photo – Wissam, Bobby, Jon, Matthew, Will, and Dana. There’s still lots more to eat!
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- After the big feast, they all played a fun board game – remember Candy Land?
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- One of my publicists from Magrino, Mary Ogushwitz, enjoyed her holiday with her husband, Adam, and their six-month old son, Jack.
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- They fed Jack Thanksgiving foods for the first time. Jack loved the butternut squash soup – such a beautiful and happy little boy.
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- The day after Thanksgiving, Mary’s family feast continued with a spread of spanakopita hand pies, charcuterie, dates and pears.
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- This family photo is from IP Paralegal, Gianella Domdom. “We prepared the turkey using the brown-sugar glaze recipe from Martha Stewart’s web site – for the second year in a row. We love it! In addition to traditional Thanksgiving dishes like stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, and butternut squash, we also prepared two Filipino dishes – bibingka (a coconut-rice cake) and lumpia (egg rolls). The cranberry sauce recipe we used was also from the web site. https://www.marthastewart.com/316142/basic-cranberry-sauce https://www.marthastewart.com/863968/turkey-brown-sugar-glaze
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- Sequential Brands Group General Counsel, Eric Gul, shares this photo. “My mother-in-law’s homemade pumpkin pie and lemon meringue pie. Both were made from scratch and so delicious!”
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- Senior designer, Tiffany Fung, submitted this wonderful image. “My family and I are vegan, but my mom still makes all the Thanksgiving classics, even my grandmother’s stuffing recipe, by easily switching out a few ingredients for plant-based ones. We also had our favorite stuffed turkey-less roast.”
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- This is from senior designer, Akira Yoshimura. “Clayton and I have been best friends since 1994 when we initially met at a college in Pittsburgh. This is a photo of his wife and family. Last time I was there was five-years ago, so to see his kids grown up so much was super fun. It was also nice for my wife, Tracy, to meet them all.”
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- “Here’s the 22-pound turkey ready for our stomachs!”
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- “The plating is all done… even for the stick of butter!”
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- “We also took a road trip to see the Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. This magnificent architecture is so inspiring.”
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- It was a great way to end a perfect Thanksgiving Day.
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- Associate crafts designer, Claire Basile, submitted this mouth watering photo. “I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Westchester, New York. We usually get a store bought cake nearby. My mother waited for three-hours in the rain to get one, but unfortunately they sold out, so my sister made some carrot cupcakes which looked and tasted so very delicious.”
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- Chris Koppel is my new gardener at Skylands, my home in Maine. He sent in these next few photos. “My girlfriend, Jesse Delia, made a lovely apple pie from scratch – it was so good!”
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- “And here’s the spread, complete with manicotti in addition to the classic Thanksgiving meal.”
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- “Jesse and I enjoyed turkey for Thanksgiving, but our dog, Sadie, had duck instead – her favorite toy right now.”
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- Our SVP of licensing and brand management, Krystle Healy, went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City!!
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- It was her son, Alexander’s, first Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade!
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- “Here come the balloons! That’s Ronald McDonald!”
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- “When did Pikachu have a baby?”
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- That’s a Smurf!
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- On the ground, Krystle took this snapshot of the “Happy Birthday Man”.
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- Here’s Krystle’s “favorite Super Wing… Jett”.
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- And of course, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – “you slice them and you dice them”.
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- This submission is from designer, Danielle Malin. “Here’s our table set for six with mixed-matched vintage china with gold trim, a Martha Stewart Macy’s collection pumpkin and a local farm bred turkey.”
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- Here’s another view of the same table – so beautifully set.
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- These are Danielle’s homemade pumpkin pies with leaf cut outs.
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- These next photos are from senior designer, Joo Young Lim. “My friends, Sam and Nate, hosted a “Friendsgiving” gathering at their apartment in Manhattan. It was nice to see Martha Stewart Collection dinnerware from Macy’s in use here!”
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- “Another friend, Carlos, cooked the turkey and brought it to the party all the way from his apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. Nobody touched the food until we all got a good Instagram shot.”
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- “Here is that picture. We couldn’t wait to eat, but had to document our friends’ efforts first.”
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- Here is a photo from our Human Resources director, Erin Gray. She enjoyed her feast with Paola from Mexico, Stephanie from Austria, her husband, Jorge, daughter, Sydney, mother-in-law from Spain, Lourdes, sister Sierra, nephew Sam, niece Lilly, and her other daughter, Dylan. “It was our Au Pair, Paola’s, first Thanksgiving! She is from San Louis Potosi, Mexico. It was quite the global affair.”
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- “My sister from Houston did all of the cooking – a traditional turkey served with our Texas family recipe, a three generation family stuffing recipe, a cranberry jalapeno crème cheese dip, and other goodies!”
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- Plus, Erin’s “Aunt Mag’s mac and cheese”.
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- This scrumptious Latin feast photo comes from our mailroom supervisor, Francisco Sanchez.
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- Senior Director of Desktop Services, Angus Chen, and his wife, Natalie, hosted their Thanksgiving this year – what a huge spread!
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- Here is Angus ready to carve the turkey.
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- “The food included sauteed broccoli, sauteed sugar snap peas with baby bella mushrooms and bacon, sauteed Chinese cauliflower, Cantonese-style roasted turkey, baked shells with chicken, leeks, ricotta and spinach, Martha Stewart’s garlic mashed potatoes, and Cantonese salt baked chicken. There was so much food, some dishes didn’t fit on the table!”
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- This is a closeup of the baked shells with chicken, leeks, ricotta and spinach.
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- This is sticky rice with Chinese sausage and dried shrimp.
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- And a plate of sauteed sugar snap peas with baby bella mushrooms and bacon – so fresh and beautiful.
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- They also had porchetta, made using a recipe from my “Slow Cooker” book.
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- This is Taiwanese glass noodles with minced pork – one of the dishes that didn’t make it to the dining table.
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- And, sauteed Chinese cauliflower.
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- Plus a platter of Cantonese salt baked chicken. So much great food – did all the food get eaten, Angus?
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- Special projects producer, Judy Morris, and her family enjoyed Thanksgiving at her brother’s home, not far from my Bedford, New York farm. John Morris was very proud of his turkey – it looks just perfect.
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- And here is the turkey plated and ready for the table – great job, John!
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- From Deputy Food Editor, Greg Lofts – “my boyfriend, EJ, and I, hosted for the first time this year in our little apartment. We didn’t like the way the wooden candle holders looked on the table so at the last moment I attached the candles to carnival squashes instead to make them feel more festive. No food shots because I was too busy hosting and setting up the buffet to stop and take pictures.”
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- And this is from Cheryl Dulong, who also works up at Skylands. She spent the holiday with her son, Torrey Grant, and his girlfriend, Michaela Sattaur – they hosted a “Friendsgiving” in Syracuse.
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- Here’s another great snapshot of Cheryl and Torrey. All these photos are beautiful – I am so happy to see everyone enjoyed the special day! You’ll see my photos very soon. I took more than 1200 images, and am going through them all to pick the best ones – stay tuned!
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