My advice is don't tinker with your family's favorite holiday foods. Instead, focus your creative energy on coming up with new ways to present those perennial favorites. Why not mix things up a bit by serving your feast in a completely new manner? For instance, when I crave variety, I set up a posh buffet in an unexpected room in my home, like my formal living room or my foyer.

First, find a round table, then adorn it with a majestic centerpiece. How about a large earthenware vase filled with a tussle of branches clipped from a fiery red maple tree? Finally, ring the centerpiece with silver covered serving dishes, shined to a high luster so they reflect the glory of the autumnal leaves in the centerpiece. For an added touch of class, write the name of each dish on a menu card inserted in a beautiful holder.

If you'd rather keep guests in the dining room, create a buffet that is loaded with drama. Resist the urge to put the serving pieces in a line down the center of your buffet like a cafeteria. Instead, use a multitude of heights to make your food presentation as tantalizing as your culinary masterpieces.

Enlist the services of a host of pedestals and risers, like tiered plate stands or dessert servers. Create a pyramid of different-sized cake plates. Put a silver or crystal bowl on top of an architectural element. Or turn a bowl upside down and place another on top of it.

Then, add in some show-stopping accents to lend more dimension to your food display. Some of my favorites for Thanksgiving are huge sunflower blooms in a twiggy vase or faux pumpkin vine garland snaking around the serving pieces.

As I write this, I can just picture my sister Judy rolling her eyes, saying, "Mary Carol, this all sounds like way too much work." Like a normal sibling, I just ignore her because I've learned that any extra time and effort you put into creating a beautiful food presentation is well worth it when you see the look of delight on your guests' faces.

Most often, Dan and I opt to serve our guests at table instead of doing a buffet. Since we're both sticklers about presentation, it's a wonder we get the food on the table before it's stone cold. I'm fussing over the china, and he's busy trying some garnishing technique he's picked up from a new cookbook.

This year, my Thanksgiving table will be dressed in fall's rich colors, but with a new
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