Thanksgiving with Friends

For the past three years we have celebrated one of my favorite holidays with our closest friends. Saturday night was our 3rd Annual Thanksgiving with Friends - what a fun night! The first year we tried cooking the entire turkey/dressing dinner but it was too much and we ended up worrying more about the food than enjoying each other. The last two years we have done stews and soups with cornbread and rolls. YUM! We had Veggie Beef Soup, Creamy Potato Soup, and Mexican Tortilla Soup - all were so good! Cornbread and jalapeno corn muffins were our sides and then came the Better Than Sex Mousse and homemade cookies w/ vanilla ice cream. We had some good food!! Lee built a fire out in our chimnea and everyone huddled around and had a great time. My favorite time was when the whole group (minus 2 couples who shall remain nameless!!) played Catch Phrase. We sat boy girl and played Boys against Girls - you would have thought we girls could beat the boys - but NO! they beat us by a point. Some were quite obnoxious about the entire game....LEE...CHAD...no names though! :) All in all, we had a fantastic time and missed those who couldn't be there.

Some of the girls - Me, Mary, Amy and Melin

The boys after their win - Lee is impersonating Eli! He makes this face when he is being rotten - one of our favorite things! Not so cute on Lee though. haha!

Kate, Tommy, Brooke and Grant having fun!

TROUBLE!! These two were mess pots all night!

Here are some photos of how I decorated the house - on a budget but tried to capture the fall season!I usually hang my Christmas cards on these ribbons in my kitchen. Originally, I was going to hang up pictures of each couple with us but I don't have all of them printed out (all on my computer). So what I ended up doing was writing a little "thankful" note for each couple and attaching with a mini clothspin and adding a colorful leaf from our yard. Turned out cute!

This was our dessert table - added a ribbon and some cedar to my pig menu holder. We have a ton of our wedding napkins left over - chocolate brown w/ our name on them. Perfect to use for dessert at parties!!

We were using paper bowls and plates to save on clean up so I decided to dress up the silverware. I wrapped each silver spoon in a napkin (white or brown) and then tied it with a coordinating ribbon (brown or green). Perfect!!

Our fireplace in the den - went to my mom's house early in the day and got some greenery from her yard. Used cedar branches, pinecones and mini pumpkins for the mantle. I always have a ton of pinecones to use during the holidays - did a whole arrangement (w/ votive candles) in the actual fireplace. Add the pumpkin that Kim and Lou got us last year and the look was complete!