Every year we do Thanksgiving Warm-up I love it more than the year before. I love hanging out with good friends. I love trying everyone else’s favorite recipes. I love getting everything ready and seeing our ideas come to life.

It is such fun for Thomas & me.

This year Thanksgiving Practice was awesome. We had 2 turkeys and 2 roasts and the most delicious sides, desserts & appetizers from our friends & family!

So here’s the skinny.

We don’t even remotely have enough room to seat everyone in our tiny little house. So, the first order of business was to transform out car port from this (Don’t judge me.):

To this:

I’m so in love with how it turned out that I want to keep it that way forever. And the best part? Oh so cheap to do. We just used big canvas drop cloths from Lowe’s, super cheap curtain rods, and the curtain rings with clips. I think it made the car port into such a nice outdoor room. The lights were inexpensive pendant lamps from Ikea and gave the room such a fun feel.

Next up? The seating. We borrowed the tables from my parents but still needed enough seats for all of our guests. For about 3 weeks before we scoured Craigslist, Goodwill, & local thrift stores for folding chairs. We found a random assortment of mismatched chairs most for $3-$4. I’m all for mismatching but in this case I kind of wanted them to match. So, a couple of cans of spray paint and we took our random thrift store chairs from this:

To this:

They’re not super glamorous, but they at least all matched. And they got the job done. So, I say success!

Next up, the party supplies. I’m all for frugality. But, I’m also all for not washing 40 plates and countless cutlery, cups & napkins. So, disposable is my first choice. I don’t love the way most disposables look, but I found these nice white plastic plates & silver plastic cutlery a few years ago at Costco and have used them ever since. Sometimes I think they’re too pretty to throw away. But then I think about what my kitchen would look like if I washed all those dishes and I get over it. Fast.

Anyways, with disposable plates, cutlery & napkins it is a little hard to set a beautiful table but Thomas had a great idea. I knew I married him for a reason. He came up with using inexpensive silk flowers as napkin rings and bundling the forks, spoons, & knives up with them. I think it was pretty, festive & a great way to keep everything together.

If I’d been a better blogger I would have taken pictures of the huge tin basin filled with ice, wine, & sparkling fruit drinks. Or the mason jars and mismatched glass containers I used to hold all the extra cutlery. It was fun and eclectic and totally in keeping with the overall personality of our family/house. For us, it was a success. And I think our guests had a pretty good time, too!