This year for Thanksgiving we headed up to my husband's Godparent's house for some wonderful food and company. We are never disappointed!
We also got to meet a special new guest at the ranch that day. Meet Vinnie. What a cutie pie!
The Godparents live on a 40 acre ranch about a 45 minute drive from our house. When I met my husband 23 years ago, he lived in a caretaker's residence on the ranch.
We got married there and lived the first year of our marriage in that caretaker's residence. Loving, happy memories are happily relived when we go visit.
But I am getting way off subject here.........Our family celebrated Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day so that all of us could be together. Reality of blended, divorced families. I say whatever works for us to be together!
So, hubby smoked a small turkey and a ham. I made a pumpkin pie and all the usual side dishes. Everything turned out delicious and we had a good time being together as usual.
This year I wanted to do something a little different. We usually all sit around, eat way too much, then do not want to do much after that. Big E, our 9 year old granddaughter always wants to play games while all the adults are sitting stuffed around the table talking. I decided to make it so everyone was happy. I printed out some crossword puzzles, word search, and word scramble pages related to Thanksgiving with prizes for the person who got the most words correctly in 5 minutes. It was a big hit, especially with Big E!
Here is the link if you want to take a look and save for next year.
http://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/crafts/fun-and-free-printable-thanksgiving-games-for-kids/
I also wanted to do something a little different for my Thanksgiving dinner table setting. While I love my farmhouse table, I have wanted to change the top for a long time. I plan on removing the existing top and replace with pine plank boards. Until then, I wanted something different and fun.
It has been used and abused over the years and looks worn and dirty, not distressed like I want. Water spots and stains are an eyesore. As you can see from this picture. I usually hide this under a table cloth when company comes.
So I used a new product for me called Klean Strip Sander Deglosser that I purchased at Home Depot. I liked how I did not have to do any sanding to remove the shine finish and water stains.
After I wiped this off, ( I recommend using TSP if you have alot of built up on your project ), it was ready to paint. I wanted to have a chalk board surface so that family and guests could have some fun while sitting at the dining table.
I applied 3 very thin coats of chalk board paint with a small roller letting each coat dry for at least 4 hours.
After letting the paint cure for 3 days, I then used chalk to cover the surface to "season" it and make it ready for writing on.
I also found a table runner on Pinterest that I liked and it looked simple to make. Check it out on my Pinterest Board, "projects I want to try"
I purchased some burlap. I already had the stencils and black paint. Then I did some research on how to "wash" or prepare the burlap for my project. So many sites said to wash the burlap in the washing machine, and an equal amount of sites said to never wash burlap. Now I was really confused. Then I found a wonderful site that explained that you can remove the odor of the burlap and "wash" it all in one step by ironing the burlap on the highest setting with alot of steam. It worked great!!
Now I wanted to add a frayed edge to my table runner. Just gently pull out a few of the strings of burlap on the edge until you have the look you want. Easy!!!
Then I aligned a straight line with painter's tape on the burlap for my stenciling. Once the letters were exactly where I wanted them to be I used a small sponge to dab the paint on the burlap to form the words THANKFUL and on the other end of the table runner GATHER.
I was really happy with the end product and it was so easy to make!
Here are some pictures of our table set for Thanksgiving.
And of course, the table would not be complete if it did not have a special place setting for our military who could not be home for Thanksgiving with their families. All gave some, some gave all. We will never forget.
As I said before, we played the word games after everyone was finished eating. I also made circles under each plate and once the plates were taken away, I set out chalk and asked everyone to write what they were thankful for in the circle. I took pictures to keep them forever.
By the end of the day, the table was a big hit with the family. We sat around and laughed, told stories, gave each other a bad time ( especially the oldest grandson ), wrote out our blessings, doodled, drew pictures, and loved.
What a wonderful day.
