It has become tradition to host Thanksgiving for any friends who do not have family close by. This year dinner was at my house and we had a fantastic time!  As you can see from the picture to the left, someone was anxious for dinner!  I hope all of you had a great time with your family and friends.  I wanted to share a couple easy entertaining and decor ideas that I put together the night before dinner that made a big impact (I procrastinate but I also have a full-time job, so that’s my excuse).

COCKTAIL BAR

I put together this cocktail bar and stocked it with fun paper straws in fall colors, glasses, non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, a wine opener, cocktail napkins and a beverage dispenser full of ice water so that my guests could help themselves while I was in the kitchen.  My favorite part of the cocktail bar was the takeout containers.  I had some fun takeout boxes and containers with baker’s twine and late-night snack tags for my guests to mark their containers with.  I found these free printables at Bloom Designs Online.

TABLE SETTINGS

I used items around the house that I already had on hand so that I did not have to spend any additional money on our table settings.  Often I like to have fresh flowers on the table, but this year I changed it up and used a tan linen table runner as my foundation.  Next, I added a hurricane full of sparkly bronze pinecones to the center of the table and then strung a fall-colored leaf garland along the table and added a few tealights.  For the place settings, I used some bronze-colored fleur-de-lis chargers from Southern Living at HOME, Pottery Barn catering plates and tied each set of silverware with burgundy satin ribbon in the center of each plate.  I added my wine glasses with fun travel-themed Pottery Barn wine charms that I got last year on clearance.  I was so happy with how it came out and the best part was that it cost me nothing and it only took about 10 minutes to put it all together!

DINNER

Dinner was awesome….but soooo much food!  Honestly, we probably could’ve scaled it back quite a bit, but all of my friends like to cook too and we all like to make sure we have our favorites on the table.  I think I could basically live off of cranberries and sweet potatoes!  Even Muddy got a special turkey dinner mixed with some veggies.  He was in a tryptophan coma too after dinner!  I wanted to share one of my favorite that will continue to be a staple on my table for years to come.  This chorizo cornbread stuffing dish is courtesy of Rachel Ray, but it’s the perfect Southern compliment to any holiday meal.

COMA TIME

Once dinner hit us all and started to make us sleepy, we tuned in to watch a little football together and relax.  One fun addition that I added this year was Turkey Day Bingo!  I found some free printable cards here at The Orange Co. and we had fun playing a couple rounds.  The winner even got a $10 iTunes gift card!  I think it was a nice touch, but next year it would be fun to make up my own cards with funny things that are near and dear to me and my friends.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!