Thankful

Anybody can write a post about what they are thankful for on Thanksgiving.  Boring.  I decided to wait until Sunday to tell you about all the things I am thankful for.  It was a busy week:

Number One:

My "41th" birthday was 2 days before Thanksgiving this year.  Isabelle came up with the idea to do a cornucopia with what they are each thankful for about me on each fruit for my birthday poster.  Loved it.

Which completes the birthday poster wall.  I don't normally have them up all year but somehow never got Isabelle's poster down after her birthday and then John and Jake's birthdays came right on top of each other and then it just seemed like I had to leave them up until my birthday.  But this is where the Christmas tree goes so they are gone now.

The day after my birthday I got a HUGE gift.  I won this contest:

Family Circle's Orlando Vacation Makeover Contest

"Write your travel challenge and you may be one of three families to win a customized Orlando dream vacation makeover with more than 100 experiences to select from. Each Grand Prize consists of a 5 day / 4 night trip to Orlando, FL for each winner and up to three (3) guests including RT airfare, hotel, attraction admissions and more."

I couldn't find a picture since the contest is over but here is a link to an article that looks like it was written about last years winners.

The important thing is that I WON THIS CONTEST!  I can't believe it.  I got the email while on my break at work and I was seriously shaking for about an hour or more afterward.  I was standing at my brother's desk when I read it and he asked me if I needed a bag to breath into!  I think I might need one right now as I re-tell you the story!  Excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Thanksgiving day we all covered the chalk board with things we are thankful for.  Guess what my second thing I was thankful for after family, yep, Orlando trip.  Anyway, we headed to my parents for the big meal. 

It was a beautiful and unseasonably warm Thanksgiving day and I HAD to get pictures of our family because I came up with a great idea for our Christmas card theme this year.  Here is a little peak, can you guess what the theme is?

We took about 200 pictures and 60 of my favorite friends and family will get a photo card with the winning 6 photos but don't worry if you aren't one (or be offended) because they just have a link to my blog where I will be doing a detailed Christmas post like I did last year.  So keep an eye out.  I ordered the picture cards and will publish when I get them mailed out.

Random cute picture of my kids and my brother's kids on Thanksgiving.  Because I adore every single one and am thankful for them all and the wonderful close relationship the cousins have and I have with both my siblings and their families.  (And, yes mom, the relationship I have with my parents too.)

Finally after going to bed before Best Buy put their black Friday deals online Thursday and therefore missing the opportunity to skip standing in line in the cold, John and I set up shop 4 hours before the store opened at midnight Friday and relaxed in our camping chairs under blankets while sipping hot chocolate from McDonald's (the only place open) and watching netflix on John's phone.  We then entered the store at midnight, grabbed what we came for and were home and in bed by 12:20 having checked Jake and ourselves off the Christmas list.

The holiday was complete.

The Thankful reveal on Thanksgiving

I know all my blog readers (both of them) have anxiously been awaiting the reveal of my fabulous birthday present. It took a little longer than anticipated to finish it and we still have not finished the painting. As with all projects it is good to double the time you expect it to take. If we do that I really have another 2 weeks and this project should be done ahead of schedule. ha ha.

I am giving you a strange combination of project reveal and Thanksgiving post here since the project was christened yesterday.

First I present the BEFORE pictures:



My lovely kitchen/dining room wall. The many cabinet doors in which to store dishes and other kitchen needs.

DURING:





watching daddy
The end of day one. My new open kitchen.

John worked all last weekend on the project and by the evening of my birthay I had lights, a new power bar and trim on one side.




Of course into every project a minor problem must fall. So Tuesday night we begin painting the fabulous new color I chose for the walls. A very dark dramatic color with a green tint. The color was gorgeous on the wall. Unfortunately it looked TERRIBLE against my green cabinets. It was the war of the cool color vs the warm color. I was devestated. John finally told me to walk away from the room as I was becoming more depressed the longer I sat staring at it.

I had no idea which direction to go from there. I am terrible at choosing colors. I need an expert. Contractor husband to the rescue! John called a guy he is working with and asked him to swing by our house and choose a new color for us. I would never have chosen it and wasn't even sure I liked it but that is sort of how I felt about our cabinet color when it was chosen for us. Plus, I was having a house full of guests in 1 day and didn't have alot of options so, when John called from Home Depot I gave him the name.

I started painting with a little uncertainty but by the time we had the first coat on all the walls I felt really good about it and now I am excited to spend the next few years looking at it. The color is much greener than I had initially wanted to go but is still dramatic and is beautiful with my cabinets.

The big reveal was yesterday, Thanksgiving, and it performed perfectly. It was so nice to have that extra counter space while preparing and then while serving the meal. And when we went in the kitchen to clean up we didn't seperate ourselves from conversation around the table. We could shoo people out of the kitchen without really sending them away. It was one of my favorite Thanksgivings in a long time...do you think it was because of the new wall? Everyone was in a relaxed good mood because of the beauty of my new wall. It just makes people want to be better people because it is so wonderful. Don't you think?

My men preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I actually did not make a single part of yesterdays meal. Note the new wall color in the background.
Grandma learning a few things from Isabelle.
Cousins. It is so fun that they are all the same age and actually have some very similar interests.

Here are my neices speaking to each other in sign language. Note how functional my new wall is in the background. :)
I set a simple but beautiful table.
Instead of a kids table the kids chose a side of the table and were all lined up long before we were ready to start eating.
I bought a new puzzle for the holiday and every member of the family spent some time working on the 1000 piece puzzle. It was so fun, a shared project just makes you feel like you really spent time together.

And so after a busy couple weeks of construction, with a few days to go, and a wonderful time spent with family I can say that I am thankful for many things including:

A handy husband,
a son (and husband) who likes to cook,
a daughter who can entertain herself all afternoon while I sit in front of a puzzle,
being part of a wonderful family full of faith,
and my beautiful new wall which is sure to bring me joy for years to come.

The Thanksgiving Table

While everyone loves to write about what a lovely time that had during the holidays with family and what wonderful food they ate, and yes we had a lovely time and ate wonderful food, I would rather chat about the table.

I love dishes. I have several dishes. I have my every day dishes, christmas dishes, a variety of tea dishes, old every day dishes I can't part with, a set of antique dishes I am collecting and wedding china which, unlike many people, I use regularly, no special occasion required. I don't know why I love them. They just make me happy. Now to really optimize my dishes I need beautiful table decorations to go with them.

I have done some table decorating with a friend over the past couple years. We stand in her basement and set pretend tables in preparation. I stand there and tell her we need different color or sizes of dishes or we need something tall or blue or whatever and she pulls any abstract thing I declare out of a secret compartment somewhere in her house and we create magical tabletops. I have done similar with my sister decorating the tops of her cabinets. I just tell her I need something tall and silver or green and flat and she comes up with something just right.

So anyway, back to Thanksgiving. I went over to my mom's on Wednesday to create a table masterpiece with no money. I brought my antique Fire King Peach Luster dishes since the color is so Thanksgivingie. A friend had given me a magazine picture with my dishes and they had used a pinkish table cloth with them so I asked my mom if she had something like that. She pulled out a burgandy table cloth that was perfect. We ran a brown sheer fabric down the center. I had brought salad plates thinking they might look nice on top of my mom's wedding china which is white with a blue border and silver edge. We put the whole thing on top of a silver charger plate. It did look nice but was missing something, the centerpiece to tie it all together. Down to my mom's storage closet we went to raid her decorations. We needed something blue, a vase or something. We found candles and pinecones and litte houses, anything that went with the color scheme and then back up we went. The only blue thing we found was a short blue vase that was perfect except for the pink petunias stuck in them. We decided we didn't like the flowers anyway so cut the heads off (the stems were glued to the bottom of the vase) and jammed in some apple things, added some pine cones, a brown bird statue and tied the whole table together in one spot, it was small but did the job. After that everything else fell together, little candle holders, tall candle holders, pinecones and pheasant feathers rounded out the look. Yes the food was good but my favorite part of Thanksgiving was looking at the table.

The bad color in these pictures will help you understand why I need my camera back from the repair shop and John wants a new work camera.