^^Oh man, what a sugar high for all the guests!

^^The cutest!

^^What a handsome boy!  He was such a great, mellow boy all day, even when the kids were all over him!

I really can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving week.  This year seems to have flown by at record speed, am I right???  This year our Thanksgiving Day is a little crazy so we chose to celebrate this past Sunday with 18 of our friends and family members, Friendsgiving.  As you may remember, we moved to our new house back in August and we immediately gave ourselves the deadline of Thanksgiving to have our ish together for hosting.  I would be lying if I said we weren’t scrabbling at the last minute (more on that to come) but we pulled it all together and had the most wonderful day full of laughter, love, and support from great friends.

Since it was a lovely 80 degree day (and we have a huge covered patio) we planned to host our event outside.  Chris and I have been obsessed with the idea of a rustic farm table since a trip up to Wine Country a few years back but were struggling to find something under $1500.  I came across this image on Pinterest and knew it was a great solution for us!  We went to Lowe’s and found our picnic tables for under $100 each!  Chris was able to easily put them together in under an hour and we found a solution on an easy stain to change the hue from yellowish to rustic brown.  I love the mix of candles in different sizes/shapes and flowers so I ran to the Dollar Tree (don’t judge, it’s AWESOME) and grabbed all these candle holders, candles, and some cut gold & white bowls for $1 each!  We grabbed a bunch of flowers from Traders Joe’s to create our own unique Fall arrangements.

Cooking for Thanksgiving always gives me so much pleasure, I inherited that from my Grandma who was the Queen of Entertaining, but with so many people I had to assign certain dishes to our friends.  Chris handled both turkeys (yes, we had 2) but cooking one in the over and the other on our grill.  He keeps it simple with plenty of olive oil, salt & pepper.  So easy but so delicious!  I always make the stuffing…I am a stuffing snob and can’t deal with Stove Top on Thanksgiving…and also did my Corn Casserole, cranberry sauce, a baked brie appetizer, and Pumpkin Bread.  We had one friend do a bacon wrapped Brussels Sprout, another made the gravy and an arugala, goat cheese, walnut, apple salad, and then there was the rustic apple, pecan, raisin tart….yum!  One of my favorite things we incorporate into our “Thanksgiving” celebrations is a candy/nut trail mix that Chris’s son adores from his grandpa.  This year G made a station for all of our guests to snack on the mix before the big meal, so sweet!

There was plenty of wine, the kids ran around an played ALL DAY, and the guys pulled out a bunch of guitars and jammed while we had our dessert and coffee.  I could have sat outside and enjoyed it all for hours…

How are you all spending your Thanksgiving?

XO, Niki

Dress: Tory Burch