The Dappled Willow

It has been my husband’s dream to host Thanksgiving dinner since we bought our house just over 4 years ago. Actually, probably long before that even. We both come from large families who love being all together during holidays. This means the gatherings can be pretty big with 9 adults in my immediate family and 14 adults in my husband’s. 

Every time my husband mentioned the idea of us hosting I always thought, “Yes, that would be nice, but it won’t ever happen because there’s NO WAY to fit that many people in our dining room.” I thought the case was closed until we renovate. (Yes, we’re itching to knock down some walls.)

I’ve been on a major decluttering kick for the past month and a half, and I even hosted a backyard flea market (aka, carport garage sale with friends and family) in an attempt to get a better handle on our living spaces. With a few large furniture pieces sold and gone we were able to reshuffle our furniture allowing more space in both rooms. This gave us the idea that we could MAYBE switch the living room and dining room spaces which would allow us to POSSIBLY accommodate a large enough table to POTENTIALLY host Thanksgiving Dinner!

We knew it would be a bunch of work to host but we figured if we were going to go through all the trouble to swap the rooms and get all set up to accommodate one large crowd, we might as well host both!

We determined my family Thanksgiving dinner would be on the Saturday, Daniel’s family on the Sunday, leaving us Thanksgiving Monday to recuperate. We were both on board so we told each of our families. 

“You want to host BOTH Thanksgiving dinners?!” 

That’s the reaction we got from almost everyone. The doubt confused us as ultimately it’s just a family dinner, right? We wanted to facilitate the event but we weren’t putting pressure on ourselves to do it all. Still, there were naysayers but we gave it our all and I do believe we knock everyone’s socks off!

Here’s what we did…

The House Prep

Besides the typical dusting, sweeping and counter cleaning (that’s the bathroom counter and such too) we had a big switcheroo to do! It only took us one evening to move everything around since we had already significantly paired down the furniture in both rooms. We did it the Thursday night before Thanksgiving weekend, while the kiddos were sleeping, so we would have enough time to get everything ready for the gatherings on the Friday. 

A huge plus of the furniture shuffling was the opportunity to sweep in places that have not seen the light of day in years. We legit found a dry black banana peel that had been hiding under one of the couches. And not a bug in sight! No telling how long it had been there… We also decided to donate almost all of the toys that we uncovered. They weren’t being missed, so we figured best to pass them along to children who may appreciate them more. Plus less clutter! Hooray! 

One issue that we’ve always had in our living room is lighting. There are no hardwired ceiling or wall fixtures; only outlets to plug in some lamps. Now that the furniture had been swapped, this was now a dining issue. We needed to figure out how to light the room so we’d be able to see our plates. We had a couple of lamps in two corners but that wasn’t enough. We plugged in a string of white Christmas lights around the window and busted out an old fixture that came with the house but had been hiding in our basement for the past 4 years. We actually got a lot of compliments on it so we just may have to keep it out and let it shine on in that room.   

The Table

Believe it or not, we scored this solid wood country chic table next to a dumpster not far from my parents’ neighbourhood. We knew it opened very wide but it didn’t come with any table leaves so off to Home Depot we went. We picked a sheet of oak-veneered plywood and had it cut to our desired measurements. I wanted the leaves to be 2ft wide so that there would be lots of room for one person to sit comfortably on each side of each leaf. We have 4 leaves cut but only needed 3. Which means we added 6 feet to our table length! 

We hope to stain the leaves but there was no time for that before their big debut. Daniel used a router to take the pointed corner edge off and I sanded them smooth so they wouldn’t dig into our guests arms or elbows. It’s not an exact profile match but it was good enough for the time being. He drilled some holes to accommodate the existing dowels and we hope to add dowels to the leaves one day too, but again there was no time.

The Decor

As far as the decor went, I went all in on the tablescape. I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like and even when I Googled key search terms to help me find inspiration pictures nothing was quite hitting the “burgundy thanksgiving harvest table” mark. Thankfully I had the picture in my head to guide my efforts, though that meant I couldn’t get much help from Daniel in the execution.

I ordered the linens off Amazon and they arrived the following day. I got to try a couple different napkin folds before I settled on tying them up with twine. 

Initially I planned to use a burlap table runner, which would have tied in the twine perfectly, but the one I had was much too short for the long harvest table. I decided instead to used stained barn boards and a wood tree round as a base for my centerpiece. Thankfully I had those on hand for sign making. It added height variation and texture to the table and turned out better than I think burlap would have. 

I used mason jars of various sizes that were decorated with lace and twine. I had those leftover from our wedding and I love busting them out every chance I get!

I used flowers from our gardens; just hydrangeas and some sedum cuttings. The only pop of colour I wanted was the orange of the pumpkins. I added squash and apples to help it look even more like a seasonal harvest table. Once I had my produce and mason jars in place, I filled in the gaps with candles and pine cone Christmas decorations.

I borrowed my moms woven wicker paper plate holders to use as charger plates. I also borrowed her wine glasses since we don’t own as much matching stemware as her. It’s really impressive that she’s managed to build her collection mostly by thrift shopping.

The last piece of the tablescape is the dappled willow sprigs I went and trimmed off our tree to add a bit of green to each place setting. I also collected leaves from our maple tree and wrote our guest names in my best calligraphy with a gold metallic Sharpie. I sprayed them with hairspray to preserve them a bit and I am pretty proud of the final result. 

In case you weren’t keeping track, the only things I purchased specifically for this event were the linens. The rest were all things I already owned or I borrowed from my mom. I purposefully chose burgundy linens because I think I can use them for Christmas in the future too.

I didn’t put up much else for decor. I put up a garland “Give Thanks” sign above the window, again borrowed from my mom. I placed a “thankful” wood sign, hand painted by yours truly, above the fireplace. And last but not least, I switched up the quote on my kitchen chalkboard. 

The Kids’ Table

I knew the next generation wouldn’t really care about being at a kids’ table. For my family dinner my boys sat at a little play table and we had a swing in the corner for my baby or my sister’s baby (they took turns between naps and feeds). 

The next day included a bunch more cousins and they just wanted to play together anyway. They were served first and ate at the coffee table in the new living room. Once they were done eating off they went! The older kids got to watch a movie in the basement, the toddlers played in the living room and aunts and uncles took turns holding my baby.

The Menu

We knew the menus would be pretty standard and expected it to be a collaborative effort as in past years. My mom insisted on doing the turkey, stuffing and gravy and my mother in law made the same offer for the second feast. With those main staples taken care of we were free to assign other dishes like potatoes, squash, peas, corn, carrots, pies, etc to other family members. 

Everyone did a great job keeping in mind the many food restrictions we have in the family, including allergies to nuts, dairy, eggs, and a couple of people who are gluten free.

Everything was delicious! It was a real team effort and both meals were a scrumptious success. Highlights for me were my mom’s stuffing loaded with bacon bits, my brother-in-law’s pumpkin thai soup, and my mother-in-law’s homemade pumpkin pie.

The Giving of Thanks

As Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, it’s traditional to each have a turn to share something we’re thankful for. In my family we’ve always had corn kernels at each place setting to represent what we’re thankful for. We pass a small basket around the table and as each person shares something, big or small, they place their kernel in the basket. I don’t think there’s much symbolism, but it helps keep track of who’s had their turn and how many rounds we have left. 

This year we also switched name tags and gave a toast to the person whose name we wound up with. It was nice to hear each person be recognized and honoured for their gifts and what they bring to our family dynamic.

The Conclusion

All in all I’d say both dinners were a success. Teamwork really makes the dream work! Everyone contributed to the menus and we had help with dishes between courses and after all was said and done.

We feel like we were merely facilitators for great family time. We paced ourselves with the work by preparing what we could throughout the week leading up to the events. 

We feel like the work was well worth the reward of the leftovers alone. But we were most pleased with the enjoyable time spent with family. We were especially happy that our mothers got to sit at the table and relax and participate in the conversations instead of spending most of the time in the kitchen. My mom and dad even got to take a little nap between dinner and dessert! I blame the tryptophan in the turkey. #turkeycoma

We couldn’t have done it without them though! Not only because they made the turkeys, but for their help and guidance. We got to observe and study them while they hosted all of those years and we learned from the best. We kept the meal and activities moving, the wine flowing, the tea and coffee brewing and pouring, and I think everyone had a great time. 

I don’t think I have any special tips or lessons learned, except the following:

1. Pace yourself with prep: Get the house clean and table set little by little throughout the week. Don’t forget to leave yourself enough time to shower and do you hair before the guests arrive.
2. Delegate the menu: Everyone contributing a little adds up to a lot!
3. Place the punch dispenser strategically: Kids will go at that thing all night and things can get messy. Best to keep it in sight of the adults.
4. Don’t stress: It’s family. It’s dinner. It will all be okay. Even if it isn’t, it’s family, ask for help if you need it.

I’m so glad we hosted. I truly enjoyed it! After everyone left on Sunday night we got to go downstairs and unwind with some wine and another round of dessert. But only after we put the couch back together and found all the billiard balls around the room. A minor price to pay after such a stellar weekend. 

And the cherry on top was Daniel got to go golfing on the Monday and I didn’t have to cook for a couple more days! We’re #thankful, #blessed, and #grateful!