A Norman Rockwell Unboundary Feast

Usually my themes for our annual office Thanksgiving Feast are hatched a good year out from the event, but this year I just wasn't coming up with anything that seemed to have legs. It wasn't until a few months before that the iconic Norman Rockwell painting Freedom From Want came to mind.

This year's Feast fell quite early. What with people's vacation times and client workloads, we really didn't have a choice. So November 5 it was. I'll share more details in subsequent posts, but a few highlights . . .

• All the girls wore vintage aprons, ones I've collected over the years and others newly purchased off of ebay.
• For the boys, I made bow ties (thanks to a quite easy tutorial from A Beautiful Mess found here). Easy peasy to make, and by sewing on string to tie them into place, the boys could wear them with shirt collar and without.
• I bought plastic smoking pipes. What better way to feel entrenched in a Norman Rockwell painting than by looking like Ward Cleaver in his study.
• I really wanted vintage Grandma-looking plates at the table. I have quite a collection at home, but eegads, the dishwashing of real plates. So instead, I bought clear plastic plates and on the backs decoupaged cut flower patterns from gift tissue paper topped with a spraypaint coat of ivory.
• Every year for the past 9 years we've served buffet style. But Grandma would frown on that. And so "pass the taters" it was. For 32 people, quite the feat. But it was so much fun. 

[A special thanks to Frank and Josie for their Instagram pix!]