Happy Thanksgiving

So much to be grateful for this year.  The most important thing to me is family and nothing was better than being surround by them in our home this year!

 Married for 8 years and we have never hosted the "big" meal.  Can you believe that?  We have bounced back and forth between families ever since we have been together {don't get me wrong, what I wouldn't give to have that back}.  Not this year.  Donna {Chad's mum} asked us if we would host, because we have the big house, she said, that could hold a lot of people and we were so excited!  This morning we found out Grandpa Shipe wasn't feeling very well, so he and grandma were unable to make it, along with a few cousins of Chad's we were expecting too and while we missed them, we had a wonderful dinner!

But before I talk about dinner, lemme just get the decorating part out of the way first!  For me, that is what got me so excited, as the hubs is the real chef of the house!  

The Front Door

This one was really simple to make.  I used burlap to make the flowers, using the same technique I used on my valentine's day wreath!  If you are interested to see what that is, click here and it will take you to the tutorial.  Once I had enough flowers, I hot glued them onto the grapevine wreath.  It is simple, yet so elegant!  I plan on using it for Christmas too, just will add in a few things to make it more festive!

 The Table

Mason Jars + Fresh Flowers = LOVE

 

 I gently {if that is even possible?!} hot glued Chad's great grandma's lace/doilies onto the mason jars.  This stuff is beautiful, vintage, and was handmade.  I have had it all shoved in a two mason jars in my craft room for far too long.  It really is too stunning to not display it and I thought that the mason jars would be a perfect way to showcase it.  I love it with or without the fresh flowers!  For Christmas I think I am going to add fresh greenery and holly!

Banners

Turkey Hand Banner!   Love this idea and when I spied it over at Dear Lillie's blog the other day, I knew I wanted to do this with the kids!  We traced our hands, glued on feathers and buttons for eyes, added wattles, legs, and our names and clipped up to a pieces of jute!  They had a blast making them and loved showing it off today while we ate!

Kids Artwork Banner!  Love, love, love everything they made at school this year and I was running out of room to display everything so I used the same idea from the turkey banner and clipped their artwork up to show off.  My two favorites are the two bigger photos.  Both are hand prints from each kid this year and each holds a very special and different, message.  While I am a sucker for the beautiful banners I have been seeing all over blogland and pinterest, I am so happy that I chose to use things the kids made as our banners!

Alright, so I know that Thanksgiving isn't about decorating...it's about THE FOOD {well, that and being together as a family}!  Below was our delicious menu!

 1.  Deviled eggs

2.  Cheesy Corn Puffs

3.  Funeral Potatoes

4.  Dinner Rolls

5.  Corn and Stuffing

6.  Mashed Potatoes

7.  Green Bean Casserole

8.  Cranberry Meatballs

9.  Turkey

Chad and I have NEVER made a turkey before so we were a lot nervous!  For years though, Chad has been talking about brining it, if we ever made it.  Well, our if came this year and brine the turkey we did!  We used Alton Brown's turkey brine recipe and lemme tell ya that bird was juicy and was cooked in less than two hours, as we cooked it using the convection oven!  The cheesy corn puffs were a new recipe we {mostly me} wanted to try out and they were delicious!  I also made the deviled eggs and the cranberry meatballs {a recipe from our first supper club!}.  Donna was in charge of the mashed potatoes, corn, and stuffing, while Rae Lynn made the funeral potatoes {so yummy and the best potatoes ever in my opinion}, dinner rolls, and strawberry surprise {pictured below}!  Aunt Lori was in charge of one of Chad's favorites; green bean casserole {it was his dad's favorite too} and pumpkin pie {also pictured below}. 

After dinner, the girls scoped out the ads to see if we wanted to brave black Friday, while the cousins played their little hearts out!  During and after all of this, we managed to loosen our pants just enough to enjoy desert!

 Which may or may not have led to a few naps on the couch!  HA!  Caught snoozin'.

We had a wonderful afternoon together and look forward to next year {at someone else's house...heehee, I joke, sort of}!  Love our family, both the ones we spent time with today and those that were far, far away!

 Linking up with a few peeps, here!