the First Thanksgiving

We officially hosted our first Thanksgiving and made it out alive!  It was a small, but distinguished gathering of close friends and family, together to give thanks, but also celebrate my son's first birthday.  After moving into 24th the week of Thanksgiving two years ago and then of course in the hospital having a baby last year, I was eager to have a mellow, cozy encounter.    Because our kitchen was is so outdated and the oven can be, shall we say... temperamental, we decided to grill our bird outside and it worked out beautifully.

Inspired by a local and organic Thanksgiving menu, I kept the decor natural.  Lots of white and earth tones.  With 8 plus baby guests, I had to keep the table minimal and decided on a row of spider mums in (surprise!) mercury bud vases.  The runner is from West Elm with a large piece of canvas from a local fabric store underneath.

Thanksgiving table

The buffet adorned some large cali lilis grown in our own backyard and a bouquet of green fillers from Whole Foods.  My oldest son assisted with the name tags, making hand "turkey" place cards from nontoxic gold paint by Palmer (found locally at Flax Art).  I used the extra canvas fabric for the buffet as well.

Buffet close up

Buffet

hand turkey place cards

And we couldn't forget the baby's birthday!  I made the sign to fit in with the decor, printed on recycled paper and strung together with garden twine (I love this stuff and will use it to wrap my holiday presents this year). 

 All in all, our "First Thanksgiving" was a success!  PS - Red wine does come out of canvas ;)