Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving, family and friends.


Today, we will be celebrating at our house (for the first time) with 22 members of our family.


Over the past few days, I've spent time decorating the tables, cleaning, and shopping for food and supplies.

Creating the tablescapes was by far my favorite part. To keep it low-stress and low-cost, I went the simple route: flowers, candles and mini-pumpkins.


Here's a picture of "table decoration" in progress. I lined the pumpkins up on the counter and requested Brian's assistance with the seating arrangements (since most of the people attending are from his family). As Brian was moving pumpkins around and asking my opinion, I flashed back to a similar scene seven years ago when we had to determine seating arrangements for our wedding reception. :-)


I stamped (and colored) turkeys on the female tags and pilgrims on the male tags. (I had toyed with using two other types of turkey place cards, but ultimately, this one--being the simplest and least time-consuming--won out.) And the pumpkins are both place cards and souvenirs.


We are using real plates, bowls and stemware, but I really didn't want to buy 22 cloth napkins (nor did I want to launder them), so I purchased these fun paper napkins instead. I thought they would work perfectly considering the invitation to our Thanksgiving celebration began with the joke, "Why did the turkey cross the road? Because he was stuffed."


Also, at each place setting, I propped up an "I am thankful for..." card against the wine glass. I'm hoping that while the turkey is cooking and our family members are chatting and munching on appetizers, they will fill out a gratitude card and place it in the basket. Then, when we've made a circle to pray right before we eat, my plan is to walk around with the basket of cards and ask each person to select a card and read it aloud. That way, we're all expressing our heartfelt thanks, but doing so in an anonymous fashion.


I also bought this "thankful" banner (from this Etsy seller) and hung it from the armoire in our living room. Originally, I had thought about packing it away with the Thanksgiving Day decorations tomorrow, but I may hang it in my workshop as a daily gratitude reminder.

Indeed, we have so much to be thankful for this year:

Our beautiful new home

Our health

Our jobs

Our family

Our friends

Our doggies

Each other

And while we won't be celebrating this Thanksgiving with my dad, my sisters or my niece, McKayla, I am looking forward to seeing them at Christmas time.

I hope you and your loved ones have an enjoyable day together, eating, laughing, and most of all, giving thanks.

J