Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving today! We stayed put here in Northwest Arkansas and enjoyed a little bit of rain, snow, ice and all around perfect fall weather that kept us inside smelling a cooking turkey, pumpkin pies, and other really yummy food. This is the first time ever that I tried to attempt a Thanksgiving meal and I was actually really excited to do it! I actually got pretty excited about when I saw this in the Pottery Barn catalog:

Seriously, I think one of my all time favorite things in life is getting the Pottery Barn catalog and finding things that I can duplicate for a fraction of the cost. And this is just one example. Here is my version:

The vase I got from Wal-Mart for $10 and the corn was from a garden store in town that was half off so I got 15 for $5. And the red charger is from the Twilight party my friend Christie and I threw last year (I knew keeping those decorations would come in handy in the future). Not a bad deal if you ask me. And the vase will for sure be used for other holidays and decor so really it was an investment, right?
Yesterday and today was spent busily working in the kitchen and trying to create the same yummy Thanksgiving dinner that I remember eating as kid at my Grandma Brimhall's house and that my own Mom would make and it was so worth it! The food was delicious (is that bragging?)! Here is the table right before we sat down to eat:

Not exactly Pottery Barn but it was just perfect for us! Ty's cousin came to stay with us for the week and so I felt justified to cook food that was all that Ty-friendly, knowing that someone else beside me was going to be enjoying it. And Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving with out stuffing and yams and apples. I'm not the best photographer and I will never know how people make plates full of food look appetizing, but here is my attempt:

I thought it would be funny to get a picture of me sitting in front of my full plate and pretending to be asleep because I was too tired to eat after cooking for two days straight but I was so excited to eat all this yummy food, that I forgot all about the idea until after I had stuffed myself silly! But no fear, I later had room enough to eat my own share of this:

This was also the first time that I ever tried to make pumpkin pie and I am so grateful that the pumpkin can has an almost fool-proof recipe on the back. But I was completely prepared to run to Wal-Mart if they turned out to be disastrous...the Wal-Mart run was not necessary.
Needless to say, we have plenty of leftovers and will be eating turkey and stuffing for days and I am 100% okay with that!
I hope everyone had a great day with lots of yummy food, lots of loved ones all around and many opportunities to count the blessings in your lives!