Family Room for Thanksgiving.

I'm participating in Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Thanks to Susan!

I'm eating a breakfast of champions: deviled eggs and pecan pie and I'm feeling very sentimental about family and home at Thanksgiving. Grandpa Joe arrives with pies (they brought 2 pumpkin, 2 pecan, and 2 dozen deviled eggs - 48 halves):


But this is about architecture and design, so I'm thinking about and thanking Bill Harrison and Gordon Stringer who gave our little house a big, flexible, comfortable, practical space for enjoying family.

We bunched our seating and brought in a expandable table from the laundry and were good to go. (20 years ago Gordon picked this table for our laundry and said we could expand it for eating.)




This week The Skirted Roundtable interviewed Alessandra Branca and Velvet and Lenin interviewed Windsor Smith. Both Ms. Branca and Ms. Smith emphasized rooms that get used, where people want to be.

That's what Bill and Gordon gave us: Space f0r families to cook, serve, entertain, converse, and collapse: Den, breakfast room, kitchen:


Here is the Russian Tea assembly line the night before:


Cheese puff extraction and testing (boy were they good this year). Wait a minute, maybe this was the sausage muffins.


Larry and his humans Deb and Dave came all the way from Florida. Our big room had enough space for his bed.


Grandson offers cheese puffs to Joe and Zella. You can't even tell that we bunched the furniture.


Young Nathan had plenty of space and was running out of the picture:


Emily took Nathan out for a cool-down:


There were little conversations everywhere




Michelle and JoAnn apply love to the dressing


JoAnn and Zella seem pretty pleased.


Some impromptu boyfriend/girlfriend dancing


Cooking space became a 2-sided buffet. David does the final inspection:




Chairs came from every corner (we did turn the TV off). Katherine is taking an early test bite while Nick rolls up his sleeves:


We ate until it hurt and ate some more...


Nathan finally had to take his mom and dad home; they needed a little nap:


The survivors finished with Scrabble, football, and G.I. Joe on the tube:


I tried to take this when they weren't looking:


Then they posed (your host in the red shirt). Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.


Thanks so much.
Terry

P.S. Did you know that Rachel did a 1/2 marathon on Thanksgiving? And still made the cheese puffs?



P.P.S. The menu and Cheese Puff recipe (click to make them bigger)



The Cheese Puff recipe is odd. We didn't cook them long enough and had to put them back in the oven. We nearly had fights at the serving bowl trying to eat them. If you want to try these, call for insider advice. Click here to make the recipe BIG.



Thanks to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.