Chrissy Teigen Recaps Her Sober Thanksgiving: 'First Time' I Could 'Enjoy Everyone Enjoying Dinner'

"I didn’t even make any crucial recipe errors this year," said Chrissy Teigen while comparing her sober Thanksgiving experience to past years when she would take a shot of tequila "every couple of hours" while cooking

chrissy teigen thanksgiving
Chrissy Teigen. Photo: chrissy teigen/ instagram

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend had a picture-perfect Thanksgiving!

The superstar couple — who share daughter Luna, 5, and son Miles, 3 — showed off their Turkey Day on Thursday, in a series of social media posts. Teigen also celebrated a milestone in her sobriety journey, sharing how this year's holiday looked different for her, explaining that it was "the first time I have ever been able to enjoy everyone enjoying dinner!!"

"I used to start my thanksgiving prep with a shot of cafe patron (COFFEE TEQUILA) and I'd pretty much take another every couple of hours," recalled Teigen. "I didn't even make any crucial recipe errors this year! toot toot goes the horn! anyhoo hope you had a beautiful holiday. grateful for you and your love."

Teigen, 35, said on the Today show last month that she feels "so good" and "clearheaded" since becoming sober.

Earlier this month, Teigen shared a photo of her handwritten Thanksgiving menu, pulling recipes from her own chart-topping cookbooks. The biggest surprise? A Thanksgiving roast chicken instead of a turkey.

"I hate turkey lol" she told one commenter who asked about the switch up.

"Screw turkey. Turkey sucks. Turkey is gross!" she told InStyle in 2017, explaining why she goes with chicken instead. "I do two whole roasted chickens because chicken is so much better and you can still get a great gravy out of it. I just really feel like people feel like they're forced to eat turkey, and nobody really enjoys it."

chrissy teigen
chrissy teigen/ instagram

There may not have been the traditional bird, but the rest of Teigen's Thanksgiving menu was filled with stable sides like cheesy green bean casserole, hot sauce collard greens, candied yams, sautéed mushrooms, corn pudding and her husband's signature mac and cheese.

She also served deviled eggs as an appetizer, Kelsey Nixon's famed cranberry salad, and finished off her dinner with two desserts: sweet potato streusel pie and banana pudding.

Last year, Teigen told PEOPLE she was scaling back her family's Thanksgiving meal this year. The Cravings author — who's traditionally the queen of side dishes — said she and Legend were shifting their focus away from food for the holiday.

"I just don't have it in me!" Teigen said. "I've been doing this for 10 years with John and his family now, and I think I've gotten a little tired of just seeing so much food go to waste. I go way too hard with way too many sides."

"We're just going to do the staples, and it's going to be beautiful and we're going to watch football," she explained.

Legend, 42, was on board. "We're downsizing a little bit!" he confirmed.

Teigen added: "We're making it much more about enjoying the time with [family]. I don't want to wake up at 4 in the morning the entire week anymore to get [the meal] done. I want to enjoy the meal with my family while they're enjoying it."

chrissy teigen and Family
chrissy teigen/ instagram

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One thing Teigen and Legend have done over the years is keep the memory alive of "the son we almost had," Jack. The couple announced on Sept. 30, 2020, that they had lost their pregnancy with Jack. Since then, they've talked about how they as a family honor Jack, even traveling with his ashes.

"Whether we go on a vacation or something, [the kids] always say, 'Don't forget baby Jack.' And then I have to pack him up," Teigen wrote on her parenting site Scary Mommy in October. "And then we get to where we're going, they're like, 'Oh my gosh, he must be thirsty.' This might sound crazy to people, but they'll put a little glass of water next to his little box of ashes. And they really love being a part of it."

"It was something for them to be able to put a story to, where we could say, 'Okay, Jack is in here and he is going to stay with us. And maybe one day we might release him. And he loves that we still think about him, and he loves that we're still emotional about him, but more than anything, he loves that we talk about him. That makes him really excited and really happy,' " she continued. "So they know that he's still very much a part of our lives."

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