warm-up

the sunday before thanksgiving our church hosted a catered thanksgiving meal for everyone. it was great to be able gather together, sharing a meal, giving thanks and just catching up with each other. i think it was also a great warm up for our tummies in preparation thanksgiving day.























since our sanctuary moonlights as a middle school cafeteria during the week, we turned the room into dining hall right after service ended.

like last year, i was in charge of decorations. this year, i wanted to keep things even more simple and low cost as possible. i was inspired by this and this from hostess with the mostess for the table decor. it was easy to do. i think the hardest part was trying to collect 18 empty soup cans in time.

after the soup cans were cleaned out, i covered them with green wrapping paper i got at target. then i tied the brown ribbon around the cans making sure to hot glue part of it to the paper. finally i took buttons purchased from joann's and glued the around the bottom of the can.













the sticks i found in my backyard and around my neighborhood. i bundled them together adding the small faux berry branch which i purchased as a bouquet (on super sale) at pat catan's. then i stuck each bundle in an empty can. each table got 2 cans w/ the sticks bouquet. a 3rd can was placed in the middle filled with strips of paper with the words "i'm thankful for." everyone at each table filled in what they were thankful for and exchanged them with others.























when i got home, i gathered up all the filled in thankful papers and stuck them on a poster board, which i'll bring in this sunday to church. after reading them, it helped me realize that there is always so much we can all be thankful for. even the little things that we often take for granted.