The Giving of Thanks

I hope you all had as wonderful Thanksgiving as we did. Thanksgiving is my one of my favorite holidays (Halloween is #1) and my husband and I have hosted 5 of the 7 years that we've lived in the Bay Area, this being our first one as a married couple! This year, we kept it small, only 7 people total and I'd like to share my turkey day decor and food with you.


A few weeks ago, our coffee table finally gave out on it's last legs (literally) so Mike and I bought a new one large enough to fit 8 people around. (Hooray for double-duty furniture!) This meant that we all sat on pillows on the floor, but for our casual group of friends this worked out great and was perfect for an after dinner game of Apples to Apples.

Each place setting was outfitted with new place mats and napkins from my favorite store, Crate and Barrel, and we used our existing everyday dinnerware, drinkware and flatware. For the centerpiece, I simply collected colorful fall leaves and placed gorgeous birch candles from Pottery Barn on top. The place cards  were yellow leaves picked from our backyard with each guests name written and tucked into our new napkin rings.

Since our coffee table wasn't large enough to hold 8 people and the food, we set up a buffet station on our small, existing dining table so our guests could serve themselves.

The Menu:

Appetizers
- Mushrooms stuffed with spinach and Grueyre
- Carmelized onion dip with crudite

Cocktail
- Warm apple cider spiked with Rob's cinnamon infused vodka (served in brown sugar rimmed margarita glasses and cinnamon stick stirrers)

Main Course
- Turkey stuffed with orange and lemon slices, rosemary and thyme
- Dressing with apples, celery and onion
- Sweet potatoes baked in an sweet orange liqueur sauce
- Johanna's cheesy potatoes 
- Classic green bean casserole (Dennis' favorite)
- Homemade cranberry sauce sauteed with apples and an orange liquer
- Crescent rolls (a staple of mine since childhood)

Desert
- Pumpkin pie (but, of course!)
- Michelle's chocolate mousse cookies and peanut butter chocolate drop cookies


Adjacent to the living room in our office, we set up our bar with wine, our signature cocktail and appetizers and later desert. We lined the underside of our frosted glass desk with white Christmas lights to give a little extra glow to the room.

I forgot to nab a photo before everyone started digging in!

All in all I think this year's celebration was a success. I have so much to be thankful for this year and was happy to share the day with friends that I think of as family.