Fall Placecards

I said I wasn't going to entertain or decorate for Thanksgiving this year.  And I'm still not.  But I thought I would at least share what I did for Thanksgiving last year.

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner for my husband's family.  There were 10 of us total.  It was only a month after we moved across the country and into our new house.  I don't know how we pulled it off!  We were SO busy unpacking and settling-in.  Because of that, I didn't put a lot of effort into Thanksgiving decor.  But I did do a few little things to make it festive.  These placecards being my favorite . . .

I found the giant pears at a local market and they worked perfectly for this project.  Unfortunately, they didn't have 10 really good ones so I had to substitute a couple for red apples instead.

I had the leaf hole punch leftover from our wedding in 2009.  Our wedding was the weekend before Thanksgiving so we had some fall accents.  I used the leaves as escort cards at the reception.  It was by far my favorite DIY project from our wedding.

Images Source:  Mike Danen Photography

I can probably get rid of this hole punch now that I have a Cricut Mini (which I've had for a year and still haven't used yet).  This hole punch was actually kind of hard to use.  I had cramps in my hands after punching so many, and centering the names was difficult.  A Cricut would've been much easier.

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving . . . I did just a couple other little things to decorate in addition to the placecards.  But not much.  My husband did most of the cooking (we cheated and bought the pies though).  My roll in Thanksgiving prep was cleaning, shopping, and putting together the appetizers (I'm obsessed with cheese plates!).  Below are a few pics.  It wasn't anything fancy, but I tried to make it at least a little bit festive.

I think the banner might have been from Michaels, but I'm not sure.

I love cheese!  It's my go-to appetizer.

I don't remember where I got these, but you can find similar ones here and here.

I found these free printable water bottles labels at Catch My Party.  

That was the extent of my Thanksgiving decor.  I'm taking this year off from Thanksgiving, but maybe I should start stockpiling ideas and inspiration for next year.  Or maybe skip right to Christmas.