Thankful Turkey | Big D & Me

This was originally posted last November when only 3 people read my blog – I will have our turkey ready for this Nov 1st as the kids have come to expect it now that this will be our third year sharing our thanks this way.

With the upcoming holidays I find my kids increasingly thinking about what they can get – i.e. video games or enormous toys. Therefore they have not set foot in a toy store since August and I hoard all toy catalogs that come to the house. I’ve been trying to really make it a point in the last year or two to help them think of others and be thankful for what they have.

Last year I made “Tom the Turkey” to help remind us that we are indeed lucky in many ways. I made Tom out of brown bags from the grocery store (yes I know cloth bags are important but sometimes you just need to have the brown bags for projects). Then I cut out feathers from construction paper that we had.

After dinner, everyone gets a feather and writes down what they are thankful for that day. Then we use a glue stick to put the feathers up. The boys seem to really enjoy this activity and won’t let us leave the table without filling out our feathers.

I included a picture of Tom from last year since this year’s turkey has tons of feathers covering his face.

A sampling of feathers from this year:

From the 8 year old:

I am thankful for….our car…having enough food on the table…going to Gramma & Grampa’s house for Thanksgiving….the Saints winning the Super Bowl.

From the 5 year old:

I am thankful for….Jesus & God…..the shepherd watching over me….going to Gramma & Grampa’s…..eating turkey (in reality he won’t touch the turkey or mashed potatoes with a 10 foot pole….Wyoming and Montana.

What can I say… the boy loves geography.

What are some of the ways your family shares what they are thankful for?

20 thoughts on “Thankful Turkey”

We do a thankful turkey too! I’m excited to put it up! Even though only my husband and I can write on it since my daughter is still too young to talk…it’s a good reminder that we have so much to be thankful for!

I’m proud to be one of the three people that read your blog back then. And thank you for being one of the three that still reads mine! :o) Tom the Turkey is still a great idea. And, WOW! You’ve had your blog a whole YEAR already?! Time flies!

Love this idea!! Maybe I can get Duke to agree to it….hmm, that might take some convincing

I LOVE this idea! My kids are a little young yet to be able to do this, but it’s going on my Thanksgiving pinboard so that I can remember in a couple of years.

I can’t wait to see what Caroline is thankful for this year…perhaps paint? :-/

Kelly on October 31, 2011 at 10:58 pm said:

haha, love it amanda!

I love this idea! My daughter is too little still to enjoy an activity like this, but I’ll have to store it away for next year. Right now, we just bless our food to show our gratitude, but eventually I’d like to create traditions like this.

That is super cute! What a fun way to share what we are thankful for!! I wanted to invite you to come link up at my TGIF Linky Party – http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties
Hope to see you there
~Beth

How cute! I love this idea!

I really like this and I’m going to pin it!

this is awesome! I love the sampling of what they are thankful for – it will be awesome to look back at later. Great to take the time to discuss all our blessings.

would love for you to stop by and share this on the sunday showcase – my child centered linky party (runs Sat thru Thurs.) – http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase

Bern

Oh how cute! Great idea for a play date full of kiddos! Stop by sometime and check out my blog! I love new followers!

I love your turkey so very cute we normally make a thankful tree with hands for leaves where we write what we are thankful for come see me at http://shopannies.blogspot.com