Setting the Thanksgiving Table
November 28, 2014
An animated GIF (above) shows the sequence of setting the table on Wednesday night and continues on with the attendees sitting down to eat on Thursday late afternoon.
Panographic photo by Philip Cohen of our table for 16! We were fortunate to have my photographer Philip Cohen as one of our Thanksgiving guests. Look at the previous post to read his photographic words of advice.
Each place setting consisted of a black plate that was either a square base, round or triangle plate. Then it was topped with a white square plus a tear drop shaped black bowl for our soup.
The flower arrangement was difficult to photography. They were very minimal.
Three flower arrangements decorated the centerline of the long table. Each flower arrangement included a curly willow branches (spray painted black), white tulips, and baby's breath.
Developing the overall theme and making the flower arrangements are my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving celebration, culminating with the very lively conversations during and after the meal.
All of the flower arrangement used the same components but, as you can see, each was completely different.
Menu cards were printed and placed on the table and at our buffet. As you can see, we had a real holiday feast with 16 close friends. Our "extended family" is getting larger.
The Desserts also followed our Black and White theme.
The Pumpkin Cheesecake was covered with black and white M&M's and jelly beans.
All decorations were artistically placed by Aryn and our guest assistant.
Our meal concluded with everyone sharing what they were thankful for. My daughter prompted us to be a specific as possible. Positive psychology has shown that we feel a greater sense of well being if we can identify specifc moments, actions and experiences in our lives that make us feel grateful.
This discussion brought us all back to the table for a wonderful conversation where we learned a little more about each person, a wonderful way to conclude our evening.
Previous Thanksgiving tables:
Gelt, Gilt, and Guilt - Thanksgiving 2013
Thanksgiving Visual Feast Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving 2012 was a Mondrian inspired color theme including the cake and cookies.
Thanksgiving 2011 followed a leaf motif including the drinking glasses and the cake with sculpted cream cheese frosting.
Thanksgiving 2009 a traditional fall motif with leaf motif including cake and our drinking glasses with gold leaves.
THANKSGIVING 2008 was black, grey and silver.