Celebrating Thanksgiving

Hello! I've been away from home for almost a week.  My family and I enjoyed a nice vacation to Washington DC. My husband and son flew home Sunday, while my daughters and I stayed a little longer to spend time with my sister in Maryland.  It's been so nice not to worry about anything, except maybe that I shouldn't be eating so many of my sisters homemade cinnamon rolls.

I just realized that Thanksgiving has snuck up on me faster than I realized.  I wanted to share some of the things I've been thinking about to help us celebrate.

Every year my sister and I were in charge of making gum drop turkeys for each place setting.  It was my favorite traditon at Thanksgiving.  Sometimes we would make fifty or more so everyone in our large extended family could have one. I've tried to make them every year with my kids.

Image from joy's thought's and things

I'm not a huge fan of Gum drops so I think this year we will make these trukeys by Nike at Thrive. They look modern and yummy. You can find the tutorial HERE.

Making turkey's is a perfect activity for kids to keep them busy while dinner is being prepared. Here are a couple other ideas I like as well.

I would love to try and make these simple paper hats and bonnets. You can find Martha's instructions for them HERE.

My daughter would think I was the coolest mom ever if I helped her make a few of these Corn Husk Dolls. Family Fun shows you how to make them with tamale wrappers found at the Grocery Store. Get the tutorial HERE.

How about you? I love hearing how others celebrate. What do you do to celebrate while dinner is cooking?

Pear Pie

I know I don't usually share recipes here, but almost every time I make this Pear Pie I get asked for the recipe. It's always a hit and it's super easy to make.  I love that people think it's super complicated and a secret family recipe.  I actually got the recipe from my sister in law and I think she found it online.  

If your looking for a something besides pumpkin pie to serve at Thanksgiving look no further. 

Ingredients:

-9" unbaked pie crust- (I usually use Betty Crocker's recipe w/ half butter, half shortening) 

-3 eggs

-1/3 cup all-purpose flour

-1 cup white sugar

-1 teaspoon almond extract

-1/4 cup melted butter

-3 pears-peeled, cored and sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In large bowl, combine eggs, flour, sugar, almond extract and butter, Pour into unbaked pie crust. Arrange sliced pears in spokes radiating from center.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350 degrees and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until custard is firm.

Cool completely before serving.

This was what it looks like before putting it into the oven.

I like to bake it in a spring form pan.  This makes it especially easy to do the crust.  I don't worry about making fancy edges.  I like the rugged edges I get when I remove the sides of the pan. 

Enjoy!

Give Thanks Banner-Free Printable

I thought some of you would be interested in a free printable for the banner hanging on my mantel. 

It is super easy to make. I made mine in about 20 minutes and if you're like me you have all the supplies on hand, making this a free project. 

Step One- print the letters: click on the links below and print

*make sure you print the letters on the landscape paper setting.

letters G and I

letters V and E

letters T and H

letters A and N

letters K and S

I printed on brown paper but you could use off white, orange, yellow, or what ever you have that you think will look good. 

Step Two - cut out your letters. I left a small border. 

Step Three - cut slits in the top corners. You could also use a hole punch. 

 Step Four - Thread your ribbon through the openings. 

That's it, you're ready to hang and enjoy.

Let me know if you have any problems or questions.

CHECK OUT THESE PARTIES I LINK TO.

Thanksgiving mantel and other decor

I've tried to give Thanksgiving the credit it deserves.  I'm sure that if I didn't have a few things for Thanksgiving that I loved, I'd probably skip it and decorate for Christmas early. I won't lie it's a huge temptation. I love our home at Christmas. 

Our Thanksgiving decor started several years ago with these blocks, I truly love them, and look forward to pulling them out. 

I tied a few ears of indian corn to the hurricanes that line my windows. 

The candles were already wrapped in fallish paper thanks to my friend Cha Cha. I think I paid 50 cents for the ears of corn and all my leaves are from the dollar store. 

The piano top decor hasn't changed much from last year. 

Do you like my cornucopia? It was one of my first tutorials.  You can find it HERE. I would still like to get some gourds for it next time I'm a the store. 

The following items are also very important to me. 

 These pots and leaves were made by my kids at school.  I love and cherish them.  I'm praying that my other kids get the same teacher so we can add to our collection. 

And finally, I was happy to pull out the leaf table runner again.  It didn't work with our Halloween decor. You can find the tutorial for this one HERE. 

I have so many fun things to try for Thanksgiving.  I hope can find some time to do a few. My month is looking crazier than ever. You may see lots of posts on what I want to do, instead of what I've actually done. 

Here is a list of parties I link to.  

Another Skirt Redesign

This is another item from my sisters goodwill pile.

I thought it would make cute thanksgiving skirts for the girls.

It was a quick 30 minute project and you can't beat free. I just wish I had gotten to these earlier in the season. Hopefully we can squeeze in a couple wears before Christmas starts.

Giving Thanks

I really wanted to make something fun for the kids to help show their gratitude. I like the Thankful garland shown here, or the thankful tree here. But, no time for this busy mama, maybe next year. I have to settle with this. It's our backdoor blackboard. It did the trick for now.

Modern Handmade Cornucopia

I don't know why but I've had this idea of a making a cornucopia in my head for weeks. I found one last year that I really wanted but was way out of my price range. I'm not a fan of baskets, staw and such so I wanted to make something a little more modern.

Here's what I did:

I rolled a square piece of chicken wire into a cone. I got mine at Home Depot for a little under six dollars.

Then I rolled a piece of fabric around it to cover the wire. I wanted to get a piece of burlap for this but didn't have time. So instead, I used a rustic green fabric similar to burlap I already had.

I used brown thread and big ugly stitches to hold the fabric in place. I'm sure you could use hot glue, but I like how the big stitches make it a little more rustic.

I bent the wire back onto itself to make it thicker at the opening. Then tucked the extra fabric inside and sewed it into place.

I like the way it looked with just fabric but knew it needed something. It took me about a half hour to to this much.

I decided to add grape vine since I had a bunch I bought at a yard sale a few years back. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to do this part. I wasn't patient enough to soak it. I pulled off the thinnest bendiest pieces of vine and wrapped them around it. I sewed/tied them into place.

Then I filled it up with random leaves and gourds I had around. I think it will be a pretty centerpiece on Thanksgiving.

CHECK OUT THESE PARTIES I LINK TOO.

From Halloween to Harvest

We were on vacation last week, so I've been a little slow at switching out our holiday decor.

I love the way the top of the piano turned out. At first I thought there might be too much going on now I think it looks plentiful and makes me feel blessed.

I like reusing a lot of my Halloween stuff for Thanksgiving. I've stuck with a lot of traditional orange stuff for Halloween even though the trend has been towards black and white, etc. I pays off when I get to use it for two holidays.

Did you see how I reused these two pieces above.

the mantel

I LOVE this sign, I think it is one of my favorite holiday decorations. I'm sure someone could make it, but I think it was worth every penny.

I had some extra leaves from my wreath. I tied them to some hurricane lamps in the window.