Turkey is the star of Thanksgiving but the table is its stage set and deserves your time and a big dose of TLC. Whether you go opulent or rustic you'll find inspiration from these fall tablescapes I've scoured from Pinterest. While it might be challenging and expensive to recreate these exactly (especially on my small table) there are a myriad of elements we can steal.

You know how much I love to create pretty table settings. For me it's as creative as the cooking. Even for a not-so-special occasion, I always set the table the day before, beginning with whatever flowers I have in the garden and letting  the centerpiece set my theme. Then I build from there, with the menu also helping to decide the  decor. On Thanksgiving we KNOW what we'll be serving,  so that step is taken care of.

We used to have such enormous celebrations as our family was big and lived close by each other. Plus, we were the family that always invited the strays.  But now we are small in number -- just six this year-- but I'm still looking forward to it as much as though we were hosting 16.  My table is small and fairly narrow and seats six most comfortably.  Besides, I love having six people at the dinner table: you can all join in the same conversation and, at the end of the night, all the dishes fit into the dishwasher.  If I have more guests I can put leaves in the table and  can squeeze in up to 12 people, but it's tight and everyone had better like each other because it will be very chummy.