Thanksgiving

11/7/05We have a couple of Thanksgiving traditions. About 8

years ago we started having Thanksgiving at our house.

Because of step parents, step siblings, etc, our

parents have not always been able to join us for the

holiday, so we started a tradition of inviting another

family that didn’t have extended family to spend the

day with to spend the day with us. One year it was

just us, and it was hard for any of us to feel festive

and holiday like. Our meals are always fairly

traditional in content, but there have been years that

I have done little to none of the cooking. One year

we purchased our complete dinner from Marie

Callendar’s, some years, we have done the precooked

Butterball turkey and all canned/prepackaged/frozen

sides, and some years EVERYTHING has been made from

scratch. But the food is generally pretty standard.

Last year, we started a new “tradition”……the

family that we invited to spend the day with us was in

a tough place in their lives, and I wanted the day to

be really special for them. So I (with the help of a

dear friend) decorated the house for fall, set a

beautiful table and made the whole day all about

making this family (and my own) feel special and

pampered. My husband told me how nice it was to

have all of these things and how much fun it was to

pamper our family as well as the guest family, so we

will be doing that again this year.

Another Thanksgiving tradition that we have is to make

a “Thanksgiving Tree” on a piece of poster board, and

the kids cut out leaves (they use my leaf cookie

cutters as a template) and we write the

things/people/places, etc, that we are thankful for.

This is put in a prominent place in the house. After

Thanksgiving, the leaves are taken off and put in a

basket on the dining room table and they are used to

pray for people through the holiday season.

Just some “housekeeping” things about Thanksgiving, I

try to do most of my cooking/cleaning the weeks

leading up to Thanksgiving so that on Thanksgiving Day

I am relaxed, and am able to enjoy my family and our

guests, and I don’t have to stress out about food,

etc.

I always find a book or two each year from the library

on the Pilgrims, Thanksgiving, etc, and we read these

the week of Thanksgiving. I also find free printable

coloring pages, crossword puzzles, etc. on the

internet for the kids to do while I’m cooking. One

other thing that we do, is the kids always make some

sort of craft to be used as part of the holiday

table…some years they have been pinecone turkeys,

some years construction paper/handprint

turkeys…..one year, they made indian headbands with

feathers, etc. I also find one easy recipe to

incorporate into the meal that the kids can make

completely on their own. (I get these ideas from

http://www.familyfun.com they always have great ideas!)

We also always take the whole week of Thanksgiving off

from our formal schoolwork to incorporate the kids

into the planning of the holiday (we do the same thing

with Christmas…we take two weeks leading up to

Christmas off so the kids can help with baking/candy

making for family and friends’ gifts).

I think that family traditions are sooo important!

Even goofy traditions or small traditions are really

important. D and I have kept some of thetraditions that were started by our parents and

grandparents, and we have started a lot of our own. I

know our kids will keep some of ours and our parents

and grandparents and will start some of their own.