Friday, November 26, 2010

My Thanksgiving Table

Thanksgiving was a little different around these parts.  Typically we travel to Rochester to indulge in 3 separate Turkey dinners and crazy Black Friday shopping.  The one Thanksgiving we hosted here(I had just given birth to Snuggle Bunny) we hosted 12.  But this year, we couldn't travel because of Whirling Dervish's insane wrestling schedule.  He in fact had a 3.5 mile run Thanksgiving morning at the Rail Trail(1.75 miles each way.)  And it was snowing that morning.  That would be that white stuff.

The conversation Thursday morning went something like this. 
WD:  Why are you wearing shorts?
Me:  I thought I might run with you.
WD:  Moooom, I'm running with my friends!
Me:  So, I can't run with you?
WD:  NO!
Me:  Howabout I run 15 meters behind you?
WD:  Stay in the car.
I didn't.  I waited a minute, then hit the trail.  I passed WD and teammate at about the 1/4 mile mark and stayed out in front of them.  I was about 150 meters ahead of them at the turn and finished way ahead of them as they had to stop to walk a bit at the 2 mile mark.  Not knowing that they were walking and not wanting to be beat by my kid, I kept up a punishing pace and today I'm whimpering when I'm on the stairs.  Darn competitive pride.

Not only wouldn't we be hosting any guests, we wouldn't even have any Dining Room furniture for ourselves.  Why not?

Remember when I posted about Computer Genius's great-aunt passing here?  Well we'll be receiving her Dining Room furniture this Saturday.  Of course that meant that we needed to make room for the new furniture.  So I put our DR suite on craigslist.  Not wanting to be greedy, but wanting it gone before the new furniture arrived, I listed it for $500.  Even with the bottom having fallen out of the used furniture market, I think it was a bargain for the mahogany veneer set.
The gentleman who purchased the set, picked it up Wednesday.  I was sad to see our furniture go, but glad that it would be cared for.  The purchaser had just bought the Rice Mansion and I knew that he was a lover of antiques and history.

Of course this left us with no furniture for Thanksgiving.  Enter the card table.  For those of you who know me in real life, you know I have a few card tables laying around.  So a card table and folding chairs would have to do.
Since it was just us(and we were using folding furniture,) I went with a pretty bare table.
Grapevine napkin rings with just a bit of beading and an iron pumpkin candle holder I found clearanced for $5 at Target.  Spare, but still, Thanksgiving is about food, family, and football.  And we had all of that.  The recipes had to be tweaked for nutrition's sake, since WD is trying to stay on track to wrestle at 103 lbs.  I steamed cauliflower and put them in the blender with the potatoes, roasted garlic, and just a smidge of fat-free half & half to create the mashed potatoes.  WD said he liked them better than regular ones.  Sweet Potatoes were cut into wedges and tossed in some chili-garlic sauce then roasted and there were roasted parsnips in the sweetpotato puree.
Notice the silverware?  I know the spoon is wrong, but SB set the table and was so excited about getting the knife right(pointed in) that I didn't have the heart to move the spoon .

Thanks for popping in and checking out our makeshift Thanksgiving table.  Next time you see our table it'll be the inherited furniture.  I'm linking this table up to Between Naps on the Porch's Tablescape Thursday.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like an eventful Thanksgiving! Can't even tell it's a card table under that feast! Yet, my favorite part was the running story....I have two boys as well, and they would have banished me to the car too! LOL

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  2. One year our dining room table collapsed and we had to bring in a metal picnic table from the garage. It took some doing but we managed to slip it by without anyone knowing it wasn't the real thing with our careful decorating. Your table looks just fine, and those happy smiles indicate it was a great day for all.

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  3. Those imprompt to Thanksgiving meals make the best memories for a life time...that's better than Christmas gifts you'll forget....
    Thanks for Sharing!
    Mel's Cabin

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  4. Great post, hope you had a lovely thanksgiving sitting at this table as it looks delightful, nice to hear other bloggers creative ideas on making the best of what we have

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  5. Envoy-ette, something happens to teenaged boys where they just don't want to be seen in public with their moms. I'm glad it's not just me.

    I do think this will be one of those memories we talk about at future Thanksgivings.

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  6. It sounds like you had a Velveteen Rabbit Thanksgiving...well-used and well-loved. You were surround by the most important things...that precious family...you'll have that inherited furniture for years to come. I really like your approach to Thanksgiving this year. Thank you for posting your charming day. Cherry Kay

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