A Festive Affair

Every year, the company I work for supplies us all with Turkey's at Thanksgiving. Last year, trying to decide what to do with an entire turkey when it's just the two of us, we decided to have our friends over for a post Holiday dinner. This year, we upped the ante and had our dinner before the Holidays, in the middle of December. We also doubled the guest list and it turned into quite an event. I had started out planning for a simple, thrown together gathering, and somehow it was transformed into a much nicer affair. I put the blame on my friend sending me a link with some holiday table layouts. http://www.thisyounghouse.com/2008/12/tis-the-season-to-set-the-table/ After browsing those, I knew I couldn't just toss a paper tablecloth out with plastic plates and call it good. There entered the planning for a vestive, pretty, holiday table.

My first order was deciding what the color scheme would be. I found some really cute dark and light green ornaments that I loved, those became the inspiration. I hit Dollar Tree for more fun and inexpensive items that would fit the colors I had chosen. I swipped three green table runners, two spools of gold ribbon, several glittery gold flowers and a few other items that I thought looked like fun. Two tableclothes (for $9.99 no less) were scored at Target, along with enough real wine glasses for everyone, and honestly, it's not like I won't end up using my two dozen wine glasses! Solving the plate dilema took a little more time. What with table clothes and table runners, I couldn't very well serve a delicious turkey dinner on paper could I?! In entered the fake china. Whoever invented this stuff is a genious. It's pricier than paper, but not as nerve wracking as serving on real china...and look how nice it looks all laid out...

So with some things I had laying around already and a few well spent dollars at the store, I had a turkey dinner worthy table. My father-in-law liked it so much that we ended up washing the disposable china and using it again at Christmas. Here are a few detail shots or the table...