Thanksgiving 2008

So we all ate turkey and felt grateful, and now are frantically decorating, shopping, crafting, etc. for Christmas. But before we get too far into Christmas, I must share my Thanksgiving Insanity for this year. Here is the centerpiece I made for one of the tables. I still love the marigolds and the vines on the inspiration post, here, and it would be more obvious with a larger pumpkin stem, but sometimes you have to make do with what you can find.

Here's a different angle after I added ribbon on the bottom. My husband liked it, but with all of the chaos (there were around 40 of us there), I'm not sure if anyone else even noticed it. So if you like it at all, it would help me feel like the hours of creativity and effort that went into it were worthwhile if you would leave me a comment. :-) (OK. Enough with the drama, it really wasn't very difficult. And I should be used to normal people not really appreciating my insanity. If they did, I might not have this blog. Thank you, fellow lunatics for validating me!)

But of course, the kids' table was the most fun! Would you believe I had a heck of a time finding plain orange plates? (Big Lots--Thanksgiving morning). I utilized scrapbook paper as a placemat (a la Hostess blog), and cut a little pumpkin stem to put under each plate. I made the same placecards I used here.

But the real hit this year was this project I came up with to do with the children. I was inspired by several ideas I've seen around blogland and from this big centerpiece I made a few years ago.

Individual pumpkin turkeys! In keeping with my pumpkin theme, I got mini pumpkins (white were all I could find, but any color works) for the body, clementine cuties for the head, cut baby carrots for the beak and feet, grapes and melon balls for the feathers (other small fruits would work too), cloves for the eyes, and sliced red bell pepper for the gobbler. We attached everything with toothpicks. It would have been helpful to pre-cut all of the toothpicks. Their favorite part was putting on the feathers. One of the little girls was so proud! She went around showing her little turkey to anyone who would pay her any attention. I like having something for the kids to do, while waiting for dinner to be served. We know they are not always the most patient.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I really am grateful for all of you and the sweet comments you leave me and the inspiration you provide! I've already got some ideas for next year that are not terribly conventional, but very cool! Stay tuned!