Before We Leave This Holiday...

I wanted to share one last post about it.  These are some of the decorations and preparations I put together for hosting my husband's family this year.  We had a wonderful time and God graciously held off the rain while we did our outdoor activities.  What?  You don't have outdoor activities at Thanksgiving?  Okay, more about that later.

In the foyer, guests were encouraged to share what they were thankful for by typing their comments on our vintage typewriter.

Since we had about 30 attending, I had several tables set for eating...one in the bonus room.

I love the colors in this table cover.  It's actually a curtain panel but it worked so well in the bonus room, I had to use it. I should really invest in some slipcovers for the folding chairs.  Maybe next year.  The lanterns were a thrift store find for .49 cents each.  I used the LED tealights from the Dollar Tree inside each.  These are perfect for rooms that may not always be occupied...therefore, the candles would be left unattended.  Here's a look at the whole room.

I transformed my dining-room-turned-craft-room/office BACK into a dining room for this past Thursday.  It's my favorite room...probably because so much of what is in there is "me" items.  It's usually a "cornucopia of stuff" but I was able to hide store neatly everything until after the holidays.

The copper candlesticks were from a thrift store as well as the acorn wire basket.  The mercury glass acorns inside were purchased on clearance at Pier One several years ago.  Love them!!

Here are a few other items I found a few weeks before Thanksgiving.  I needed something to put dishes on that was functional and nice to look at.  I found this great black crock stand, already painted black which looks great with the ironstone.

I saw a post at Vignette Design blogspot on pumpkin windowboxes that was BEAUTIFUL!  So, having found a windowbox...at the thrift store, of course...Mr. Wonderful (hubby) installed it underneath my kitchen window and I filled it with all sorts of fall goodies.  The window is on the second story so it was a little difficult to get it to look just as good from the driveway below as it did from the kitchen.

Oh, and back to the outdoor activities.  Usually, my husband's side of the family plays a good, competitive game of kickball.  This year, since we hosted, we did what any Southerner would do...pumpkin shootin'! 

What? Your family doesn't do this?! Lol, it was a first for us as well. We had intended on making a trebuchet or giant slingshot for punkin' chunkin' but time ran out and this was our plan B.   I'm really, really hoping for a nice pumpkin patch next year.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for visiting and sharing my Thanksgiving with me.  The decorations are now boxed away for next year.  I'm off to unpack the snowman : )

Blessings!