Preparing for 15. Adults.

I love Thanksgiving. Love it. It's my favorite holiday. But, more on that later. This post is about some of the preparations for the day, not about the day itself. 

This year, Seth and I will be hosting our 4th Thanksgiving. Our 4th and by far our biggest! 15 adults and 6 kids (6 and younger) at last count. Whew! But, seriously, the more the merrier. We love hosting, and are thrilled to be spending the day with our friends and family, but there is some serious planning involved with a group that large for a sit-down dinner. And part of that planning, my friends, is place cards. 15 of them. 

Given that the group is a little eclectic this year and fairly large, I wanted the place cards to be fairly large (so as to be seen from several feet away, down the table) and quite simple (so as to not take my entire life over the next week). 

Here's my process:

15 pieces of brown (5x8.5), 15 pieces of golden (2x4ish), 15 felt turkeys (from Michaels), and 1 brown Sharpie

fold the brown pieces of cardstock, write the names on the golden pieces

combine, and you're done!

Each year during Thanksgiving dinner, we go around and say at least one thing for which we are thankful. It was a tradition we brought to the Spofford family when we started hosting (I'm sure I read about it somewhere because we didn't do it in my family growing up), and now even the kids love it. They look forward to it, talk about it, and my oldest niece, Delaney (age 5 then) was so excited about it last year she wanted to be last. She wanted to be the last person to express what they were thankful for. I loved that she had been thinking so much about her opportunity to do so that she had a preference about when she shared it. LOVED it.

I was reading in a magazine this year that families should take time at Thanksgiving to record what they are each thankful for. I loved the idea immediately! Since we already take time during the meal to express our gratitude, all I had to do was come up with a way to record what people say. I thought of several things, none of which were very creative or exciting, and then a blog had an idea of each person writing what they are thankful for on a feather-shaped piece of paper and sticking the 'feathers' into a yarn turkey. It was a cute idea, but I wanted to scrapbook these pieces, not create a centerpiece. And so, the idea was planted of having them be separate pieces tied to a themed whole. And then I had it. The perfect idea!

I used my Cricut (pronounced like the bug: cricket) to cut out a tree and some leaves. I wrote "I am thankful for:" on each leaf, in different directions/places, so that when I scrapbook them, they can be semi-randomized on the page. I plan on asking everyone who can write (we have all the speaking kids say something) to write down what they share and to sign their name. This way I'll have a record of what everyone said from year to year.

I have some leaves that I plan on spreading along the table as decoration, and these will be there too, one near each plate. I'll be hiding pens underneath the fairly large place cards, and people can write their thing down whenever they feel like it during the meal. I'll collect them when we're done eating, and scrapbook them whenever I get to that spot in our album. I'm SO excited about this!

The Gaylord and Friends

We went to the Gaylord Texan Saturday night to see all of the decorations. Mike had stayed there for training earlier in the week and had told us about the display. It was $12.99 to park and free to walk around. There's a Santa to take pictures with, and several other fun activities (all which cost money), but I'm not sure I would do it again. It was fun to do this one time, with out-of-town friends, but was lackluster, in my opinion, and a little to warm inside the atrium.

In any case, we got some great photos!

This was on the side of a life-size gingerbread house. one you could walk into, etc.

Austin loved watching the train go around this village beneath the tree.

The rotating tree was about 10 feet up in the air.

Austin with Uncle Mike and Auntie Anne Marie. (Love the ring on Mike's finger! ;-)

The newlyweds posing in the sleigh.

The newlyweds posing by a fireplace.

Austin posing on Santa's chair. Which we had to wait seemingly forever for. The guy wouldn't leave!

The Art Can Hang!

The first time I picked Austin up from 'school' and he had a piece of art to bring home, I about cried! I couldn't believe that my baby was already bringing wonderful treasures into our home. And, it meant he was doing crafts! Nothing makes this Crafting Momma happier than knowing her son was doing crafts! I was over the moon!

And then it hit me. I had no where to put this treasure. We have a stainless fridge, so I couldn't put it there. I wanted to find a place of semi-prominence in the house that would be the designated area for this kind of thing without it then taking over the decor/feeling of the entire house. The office was the right spot, but how to hang them? I was perplexed and stalled.

And then a few weeks later Austin came home with another piece of art. Another treasure that had no place to call home! And then a couple weeks later, he came home with another piece of art. Another treasure without a home!! These works of art deserve more than to be immediately stuffed into a folder or filing cabinet, so I decided to find a way to display these (and future pieces) sooner rather than later.

I finally caved into Pinterest as I was desperate for good ideas, and came across the following use for an IKEA curtain 'rod.' I say 'rod' because it's nothing more than a thick piece of wire strung between metal posts (with tiny clips to hang stuff from, much like a clothesline), so it's not as solid as a 'rod' brings to my mind. Anyways, I immediately decided that it was perfect, and within two weeks, we had bought and installed it. Now Austin (and any future siblings) will always be able to show off art treasures!

The silver speck in the middle that you see is an anchor from a picture that used to hang in the center of this wall.

Poor Seth!

the first wire is up...

Perfect!

Austin's Growth

BIRTH; October 20, 2010
6 pounds; 12 ounces
20 inches

TWO WEEKS; November 1, 2010
weight: 7 pounds; 4 ounces
height: 21 inches
head: 13.75 inches

TWO MONTHS; December 10, 2010
weight: 9 pounds, 10 ounces
height: 22.1 inches
head: 14.84 inches

FOUR MONTHS; February 17, 2011
weight: 12 pounds, 6 ounces
height: 24.5 inches
head: 16 inches

SIX MONTHS; April 21, 2011
weight: 16 pounds, 15 ounces
height: 26.25 inches
head: 17 inches

NINE MONTHS; July 21, 2011
weight: 20 pounds, 2 ounces
height: 28.75 inches
head: 17.81 inches

ONE YEAR; October 26, 2011
weight: 23 pounds, 6 ounces
height: 30.20 inches
head: 18.40 inches

Halloween 2011

Austin was a Hersey Kiss for Halloween this year. I had a hard time keeping the hat on him, though, so he was mostly a big silver blob walking around the house! As evidenced in the pictures below. :-)

We knew he wouldn't be interested in trick-or-treating, so we decided to stay home and hand out candy. He and Daddy had a good time scaring people by hiding behind the door and then jumping up after they'd knocked. One of our neighbors who knows us pretty well (her mom is our go-to photographer, she's babysat for us, etc) didn't like it--she shouted "Not Funny, Seth!" so loudly I could hear her from the kitchen (with the front door still shut!)! It was hilarious!!

a walking silver blob

the blob finds the basket of candy and decides to investigate

Once he sat, I was able to put the hat back on.

He was so busy chewing on candy that he didn't seem to even know the hat was up there!

Once I took the candy away, he immediately tried to get the hat off! (you can see his cut/black eye here)

ready to scare the next kid

Given that Austin had a black eye on Halloween, I considered buying some green clothing so that he could be a Black Eyed Pea (even though I realize they aren't green), but the humor would have been lost on all the kids coming to the door, so I decided to spare myself the hassle. Still makes a good joke, though, right!?