Thankful...

I imagine that every holiday season a lot of moms out there feel the way I’ve been feeling lately—overwhelmed and depleted. There’s the pressure of wanting to provide a meaningful, beautiful, special celebration for your little one (even a little one who’s only six months old), and wanting to find time to spend with your loved ones, and tackle the pile of holiday-related chores and still manage to keep up with the avalanche of daily tasks we all have to manage. It’s a lot. But I’ve been looking back through the pictures from my holiday celebration a week ago, and feeling overwhelmed in a new way—how lucky I am. I hosted my first Thanksgiving last week, and it was a truly community effort—and I’m struck by how thankful I feel to know that I have such a community of loving, interesting, helpful family members and friends!  Hope you enjoy sharing in our celebration…

I made this banner by threading pale yellow yarn through a piece of burlap ribbon from Michael’s… it took a lot longer than I imagined and the backside of the sewn ribbon is frightening (sewing is not my strong suit), but it managed to hold up and provide a nice entry into the party…

Good friends cooking good food…

I love this picture. 

The final results of the table…

the chairs are a mishmash, the placemats I bought didn’t fit, and I had just barely enough plates! But it looked more glamorous once all the candles were lit, and I thought it turned out beautifully simple.  I also repurposed wine bottles to serve as water decanters for the guests, which was something I’d been wanting to try for a long time.

One of my favorite details was a last-minute addition:

I unrolled a piece of kraft paper onto the wall behind our bar, and when each guest arrived with their side dish, I chalked the name of the dish onto our impromptu ‘menu’—I LOVE it. And btw, doesn’t my mama look stunning here? I could NOT have thrown this party without here, she’s my secret weapon!!

My Thanksgiving outfit—

My Thanksgiving outfit—top from Crossroads, vintage necklace & bracelet, DL 1961 jeans, and booties from Anthropologie.

Happy chaos—

our guest list consisted of our parents, Jess’s brother and nephews, a handful of our good friends, and one of our friend’s parents and brother.  It was eclectic to be sure, but somehow it all worked.

I’m so proud of my hubby—

he deep-fried our 17-lb Thanksgiving turkey! He did tons of research online to make sure we did it safely (thanks, random All-State commercial for informing us that deep-frying turkeys cause 25 people to burn down their homes every November), and even donned his protective paintball gear… er, I mean Professional Deep-Frying Gear…

Our spread…

This salad is my new specialty…

I LOVED sharing this meal with Finn—

he sat at the table with us in his high chair and we shared some pureed squash and sweet potatoes. Despite all the excitement and lack of naps, he was super sweet and mellow all day—I don’t know if he was excited by all the people, or aware that it was a special day, or just completely dazed….but I’ll take it.

By the end of the evening, everyone was fast friends and full of deep-fried turkey (which was, btw, incredible). The only thing we would do differently next year is to infuse the turkey with butter, because it just didn’t make us fat enough.

Sigh.

I feel replenished just remembering the beauty and warmth of this evening; I hope that it did the same for you, even in a small way. xoxo