At the Table

One of my favorite blogs for a long time (about 8 years) has been SouleMama.  And one of my favorite things she posts often about is the goings on at her family's kitchen table.  It makes me think about kitchen tables I have known and loved, and all the Important Things that happen in such a common-yet-intimate space.  With that in mind, and with a very table-centric holiday right around the corner, here is the first of what I hope will become a regular feature here.  It's not a kitchen table (our kitchen is too small, so we just have a dining room.  Which suits us just fine) but it's well loved and well used, and I hope it will sometimes be an inspiration to you.

(Note: these are photos from the last two Thanksgivings ... I still don't know how it's all going to come together this year.)

Thanksgiving Tables

A couple of years ago, we hosted my husband's family for Thanksgiving dinner.  And while I own and sometimes use nice china dishes (they were my mom's and I grew up using them at every major holiday) this time I wanted to keep it simple and casual.  I used our everyday dishes and place mats, dressed up with gratitude journals as place cards.  A simple centerpiece (because we were just going to move it anyway to make room for all that food!) and I was done.  For the kids, I covered the table with butcher paper, outlined "place mats" set out some crayons and let them go to town.  Again, super simple, easy, and fun.

Thanksgiving Traditions

And while we're on the subject of Thanksgiving, here are two of my very favorite traditions.  I love them because they're fun, and because they're unique to our little family in that neither my husband nor I grew up with either of them - we started them ourselves.  And there's just something really nice about that.  

The first is a gratitude chain, where each piece of paper has written on it something one of us is grateful for.  We start writing them just after Halloween and go all the way until Thanksgiving day.  Anyone who visits our house is welcome to participate, and we keep the chain and add to it every year.  I love that when we look at it we can see how our kids have grown and matured, and sometimes we'll spot something written by an extended family member or friend.  

The second began just last year, and I wasn't sure it was going to stick until my 6-year-old son asked if we could do it again this year.  The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is the last night any of us really wants to make dinner - after planning and prepping and cooking like mad for the holiday feast, nobody feels like cooking much at all.  And so, while the kids had their annual screening of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", we replicated Snoopy's Thanksgiving dinner.  At first we thought it would just be funny - and it was - but it also prompted some good conversation about gratitude, Charlie Brown style.  I'm so excited to do it again this year!

How about you?  What's happening at your table?  What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions?