Our First Thanksgiving

I was going to post this yesterday but I didn't think it was appropriate to talk turkey on St. Patrick's Day. 

In the last post about our new floors I mentioned that Jon and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the very first time. Looking back it was not a good idea to start such a huge project right before such a big holiday. NEVER. AGAIN. But you live and learn... and it was good because it definitely gave us a deadline. Had it not been for the fact that seven other people were coming for Thanksgiving dinner I'm sure Jon and I would have worked at a much slower pace.

I had no clue how much work it is to host a holiday. I knew that it meant my house had to be really clean and I would probably have a ton of dishes leftover but that was it. I was so naive. First Jon and I had to buy more plates so we could have complete set of twelve settings. We had six settings that we had received as a wedding gift. That obviously worked for Jon and I and to host our families informally but we knew it wouldn't fly for Thanksgiving. Luckily the place settings were on sale and the guy who helped us to set up our registry allowed us to use the registry completion discount even though it was a little past our anniversary (which he totally remembered by the way). While I was at Macy's I picked up gold placemats (also on super sale). I figured gold was color that could be used for any of the winter holidays and it looked nice with a tablecloth I had bought a while back for the occasion.

Then I had to buy water glasses. We have glasses that we use for everyday but I wanted fancier looking water goblets. (Yes, water goblets. I really wanted to host a fancy dinner.) I actually found some at the Dollar Tree of all places. I settled on those because the price was right, they had twelve in stock and I could always buy more if one broke. I also wanted plate chargers and cloth napkins but I couldn't find any I liked in time. Next time....

I had already worked on decorations so all that I really had to do was set the table. Our dining table seats six but we were expecting a total of eight guests (ten counting Jon and myself) so we set up a little card table at the end of our table and borrowed a couple of chairs from my mom. I also wanted to start a new Thanksgiving tradition to remember who was at Thanksgiving. I tweaked the thumbprint tree thing people do for wedding guest books and laid it out on the coffee table. Over the years we'll use different colors to add to it.

Another crafty touch was my chalkboard menu. My cousin had the frame and cardboard and I had the paint. I painted the frame white (while I was painting all the baseboards) and spray painted the cardboard with chalkboard paint. I already had the chalk pens so this was free and easy to do. Jon made a rosemary and sage turkey and a mustard and brown sugar glazed ham. It was so good we had NO leftovers. We ended up laying the food out next the menu so we could grab some from the kitchen or dining table.

I also created a little drink station on our console table. I laid out the glasses, water and wine so people could fill up without cramming into our tiny kitchen. My awesome coworker helped me make little drink tags so people wouldn't confuse their glasses.

We also got a fire pit (courtesy of my parents) for our patio. Since our living room is on the small side we wanted our guests to use the outdoor space. It worked out nicely (who doesn't love sipping wine with loved ones around a fire?) but I don't have any photos to share.

And of course, no holiday would be complete without the tiniest member of our family. Poseidon enjoyed being fed bits of turkey from my sister's plate and a little afternoon nap.

I would say that our first Thanksgiving was a success but I'm not ready to do it again anytime soon! Jon and I were just happy that we didn't totally screw up the turkey and the floors were done. We might feel up to hosting again next year. Maybe.

Fall Finds

I LOVE decorating for the holidays! Seriously. I get it from my mother who usually puts up THREE Christmas trees (last year she only did two since I took one of the trees with me when I got married). What I can I say? It runs in the family! Normally I'd be pulling out the Christmas stuff from the garage but since Jonathan and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year (which I am super excited for) I wanted to have a fall-y feel to our home.

It all started with Target. I went in for my biweekly visit while Poseidon was at the groomers. Yes, I schedule my Target visits and no, I don't think that's weird. I prowl the the clearance sections waiting for stuff to go on sale. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyways... I found a metallic gold pumpkin that was originally intended as a outdoor candle holder on sale for half off. You know I put that straight into the cart. I also found a pumpkin scented candle shaped like a pumpkin and a leaf decorative plate.

Since Poseidon still wasn't done I head over to HomeGoods. All of the Halloween stuff was deep discounted and I found large glass pumpkins on sale for $3.50 and $2.50!!!!! I befriended another shopper and between the two of us we took home all of the clearance pumpkins. Obviously I didn't buy all the pumpkins for myself. I shared with my mom and cousin. Duh.

Once I got home I started decorating. The dining table was the easiest place to start. I pulled out a red runner that I got on super sale from Kirkland over the summer and added three pumpkins in the middle. I made the twine wine bottles by glueing some twine (from Hobby Lobby) around them. I already had the wine bottles and the twine cost me around $6 total thanks to a coupon. I wanted to spell out fall on the bottle but never did... maybe next year. I'm thinking about adding some faux fall flowers or leaves into the wine bottles to add some height and visual interest but we'll see if I ever get around to it.

The leaf platter went on the coffee table with some natural wood looking balls. I placed a few faux leaves underneath so there would be some color.  I moved the candlesticks from the dining table to the coffee table. Inspired by Pinterest I used twine to secure leaves to the candles. To keep it from being too monochromatic I placed my new shiny orange pumpkin in the middle.

My mom gave me a ton of faux fall leaves and since we were about to have guests arrive I stuffed them into a red vase on the side table. They're right next to a wedding photo frame that I have yet to fill.

Our console table is a little less decorated. But it did have a beautiful bouquet of flowers sent to me by Jonathan's mom and her fur baby.

The fireplace mantel also received a mini makeover. Since our TV is mounted over it I can't really do too much but I relish any opportunity to use some wire mesh to hide our cable boxes. The banner is my favorite (after all the pumpkins). I wish I could take credit for it but it was made by a couple of my student employees. They cut out the circles and made a font template to add the letters. So pretty.

And that's step one of many on my Thanksgiving To Do List. The only other thing for Thanksgiving I wish I had was a turkey costume for Poseidon. But I don't think he'd ever forgive me!