Holidays keep me sane

When life gets too heavy, when the news of violence, intolerance and hatred seem to come at me from every channel and station, I find peace in preparing for the holidays. I spend a lot of time ruminating on these issues, because that journalism blood courses through my veins, and I need to know, most of the time.  But it's nice to focus on something as trivial as dishes and cloth napkins once in a while.

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Each Thanksgiving I try to set a nice table. Table linens, flatware, centerpieces and china make my heart happy. I don't have a lot of any of it, but I try to use what I have and change it up each year to make it new to me. I like using what I have whenever possible, and I'm not a person who buys new stuff every year. I get a lot of pleasure from traditions and using the same items every year. For me, these things conjure up wonderful memories that I get to relive every time I use them.

The table we use for Thanksgiving was given to us. We keep it stored all year, and bring it inside only for that holiday. It's pretty ugly, because it isn't in very good shape. The veneer on top and on the sides is starting to curl, and the leaf for the table is missing, so we use a large piece of plywood in its place. It expands to seat 10 comfortably, and once I get the linens in place, you don't even notice how bad it is. While this table is taking up a lot of space, and it's in bad shape, I can't part with it yet. We've had some good times around that table.

Because we were serving 12, I added our regular round dining table at the end of the big table, so we could all technically still be sitting at the same table.

This year, I started with an ivory tablecloth for each table. We have a lot of these left over from our wedding reception. Buying them was the best idea. These have paid for themselves many times over.

Next, I folded a gold lame cloth into a runner for the round table.

Small table.

View of both tables.

For the large, rectangular table, I placed a rust-colored, thin, wool shawl on top of the ivory table cloth. It has gold and brown embroidered ginkgo leaves along each edge. It covered the top of the table, and on top of the shawl I placed a gold, jute runner.

Unfortunately our candle holders are packed in a box. We thinned out everything this summer to get ready to list the house for sale. I knew it would take way too much time and effort to find them, so I bought new ones. These cost more than I would normally spend for such things, and I bought them at Pier 1, which in my opinion is overpriced, but I didn't find any in the first few stores I searched, and I needed to just get it done.

I mixed silver metal and glass, and whitewashed wood candle sticks, and I used cream-colored tapers. Normally I run out into the back yard the morning of Thanksgiving to get a few fall leaves and place them along the center of the table, but this year I remembered that my hydrangeas were still on the stems, dried, so to speak. I clipped some of them and mixed in some acorns and placed these around the base of the candle sticks.

For the small, round table I used a whitewashed wood pedestal candle holder that matched the candle stick on the larger table, which also had the sliver glass, and silver metal candle sticks.

I don't have more than eight napkins that are the same pattern, so I mix and match those.

We have a set of china from the 1930s, and we use it every year. It is a fairly complete set, and it works well for Thanksgiving. It even has a couple of bowls, a gravy boat, soup bowls and dessert dishes.

Arts and Crafts-era dish holder.

And speaking of serving dishes, I have a silver dish holder that brings me so much joy I just can't even. It's from the Arts and Crafts era, and although I don't have the original dish that sits inside of it, I make do with a shallow, clear glass dish with handles. I found this beautiful girl at a thrift store, and I was so excited to pay the $1 for it.

Turkey, stuffing, yams, a couple of new recipes that I found and tried, and everyone liked, including a recipe for Parker House Rolls, and a mushroom yogurt pie with spinach crust, and pies, of course. Our home was filled with people, and everything that I love about Thanksgiving.