Thanksgiving with my family and friends is one of my favorite celebrations. It’s a rare chance I have to spend time with all the people I care about in one room—which is very important to me. I also think of Thanksgiving as the official kick-off to the holiday season, so it’s important to get things started on the right foot!

I spend a lot of time creating transformations for my clients throughout the year, so it means a lot to me to get to do it for my family. Just like surprising my clients, I like to surprise my loved ones with my design and transformation.  Like I said in my post earlier this month I love seeing the look on my family’s face when they walk into the room I decorated just for them. Not only that, but I get to relax, eat great food, talk and laugh with all the people I care about in the world.

My family is so big that each year we empty out my studio to make room for our Thanksgiving table. I showed you the empty space in the before pictures, here’s another picture of the finished table:

I also use this time to hand out my Christmas presents (I’m usually traveling around Christmas), along with little giveaways for each guest. Here’s a picture of one of the giveaways:

Thanksgiving is always a time of abundance, so my table this year is only decorated with fruit. Besides leftovers and presents, everyone is also taking home a basket of fruit:

One design tip I want to share, which I may have mentioned earlier, is that you shouldn’t overlook everyday materials you have laying around the house when planning on what to decorate with for Thanksgiving (or any event!).

I focus on using and re-using readily available, accessible materials for all my personal events. Whether that means going into the archives of my studio and finding leftover materials we can bring back to life, or walking down the street and being inspired by nature’s offering (leaves, twigs, flowers), there’s a lot that can be tapped into to create a fabulous design. Don’t think you need to break the bank to decorate your space, you just need to think inventively about the materials you already have access to.

With that, I’m going to put one last picture of all of us at the Thanksgiving table. We enjoyed a Panamanian feast and I’m still stuffed!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday too.