Thankful Turkey – A Family Tradition

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Jennifer

Each year I make a paper bag turkey and feathers for our family’s annual Thankful Turkey.

He usually gets called Tom the Turkey or Ted the Turkey and we add thankful feathers onto him each day.

Here’s a photo of our 2009 Tom:

This year I decided to upgrade us to brown wrapping paper.

I know, we are the last of the big spenders.

I found a turkey picture I liked, printed it out, and drew freehand the turkey onto the brown paper.

My children have informed me that it looks like Ted is holding his private parts.

Children.

You just have to love them.

Or tell them, “Do not say Ted the turkey is holding his private parts ONE MORE TIME!”

After dinner, everyone takes a feather (scrap paper I have) and writes down one thing they are thankful for that day.

After I had written my feather on the first day I asked my preschooler what she was thankful for.

She said God.

I decided to take that moment to add a bit to my feather.

Here are some more things we are thankful for…

But don’t worry the next holiday is never far from our minds.

And just to cover our bases…

🙂

Children’s Thanksgiving Books

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Jennifer

I have shared some of our family’s favorite Christmas books (along with our Christmas Eve tradition) before so I thought it would be good to share some of our favorite Thanksgiving books.

I keep all of our holiday books together and only take out the ones that pertain to that month at the beginning of the month. I’m pretty sure that’s the former teacher in me coming out.

Nothing fancy for storing them – just some old milk crates in our storage closet. (Christmas – bottom shelf; Halloween – left of top shelf; February – right of top shelf)

It’s exciting to see all of our favorite books come out and sit and enjoy them. Please tell me about any favorites your family might have.

Ten Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston

-Cute rhyming & counting book with each turkey falling off the fence after some mishap-

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I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson

*My friend Betty gave this book to my children years ago & it’s always a favorite – the illustrations show grandma eating the entire Thanksgiving dinner, even the pot it was cooked in!

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Arthur’s Thanksgiving by Marc Brown

Arthur is in charge of the school Thanksgiving play and he can’t find anyone willing to be the turkey –

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Thanksgiving Mice! By Bethany Roberts

-Adorable board book about mice putting on a Thanksgiving play, one of our favorites-

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Franklin’s Thanksgiving by Paulette Bourgeois

Franklin is sad because his grandparents can’t come for Thanksgiving. He decides to invite some friends to dinner without telling his parents.

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Olivia Talks Turkey by Farrah McDoogle

Olivia is up to her usual antics this time learning how to “call” turkeys with the help of her teacher Mrs. Higenmuller

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We Gather Together…Now Please Get Lost! by Diane DeGroat

We added this book to our Thanksgiving pile last year – Gilbert is not happy with his partner on the school field trip to Pilgrim Town so he ditches him once they arrive. Unfortunately it was not a good move for Gilbert.

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The First Thanksgiving by Garnet Jackson

– Simple reader that shares the Thanksgiving story –

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We’re Gong on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

Not necessarily a Thanksgiving book but the illustrations indicate it’s cold and windy so I put it in our pile.

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A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD

Not a book but one of my kids favorite holiday DVD’s – always fun to pull this out in November

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And here’s our new Thanksgiving book this year (book fairs sucker me in everytime)…my 8 year old LOVED this book and read the whole thing in one day, constantly spouting out facts he found interesting.

What Was the First Thanksgiving? by Joan Holub

This 100 page book is filled with illustrations, maps, pictures, and information about both the Indians and the Pilgrims.

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I’m already thinking about adding these books to our collection next year…

The Berenstain Bears Thanksgiving Blessings by Mike Berenstain

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The Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing

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Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of The Puppeteer of the Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet

Obviously, I have a love for children’s books.

Happy Thanksgiving Reading everyone!

Running for Pie

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Jennifer

If you’ve read my blog anytime in the last 3 months you know I’m training for a half marathon and pretty much hating every step of it.

Regardless of this dislike, I am committed and will push on for two more weeks.

One big hurdle in getting to race day is over for one of my sisters and me.

On Thanksgiving we ran 9 miles. Definitely an accomplishment for us.

We ran 4 miles before a 5 mile Turkey Day run.

I use run loosely for myself but Kelly truly rocked it on the run.

7 AM before our run, about fifty degrees outside, apparently Kelly had some dribble issues that morning

Since we were running on Thanksgiving morning I felt I had a built in dangling carrot.

Mile one, I was running for turkey.

Mile two, I was running for stuffing.

Mile three, I was running for gravy.

Mile four, I was running for mashed potatoes.

And mile five, I was running for PIE!

My strategy worked for awhile but around mile four (really mile eight for us) is quite working. Right along with my Ipod. Now, I could hear my huffing and puffing along with everyone who was passing me by. Instead of mashed potatoes and pie I thought about pain and more pain.

Despite my negativity, I finished the race. I might add that I finished immediately ahead of a woman pushing a triple stroller containing two year old triplets. Some would be ashamed of that fact but I’m focusing on the AHEAD OF A WOMAN part.

It took me just under one hour and two minutes to complete the race while Kelly finished right at one hour. What can I say, her entire five miles were devoted to wine.

Thankful Turkey

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Jennifer

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?

Ha!

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Jennifer

Why did the police arrest the turkey?

Wait for it…

They suspected it of fowl play.

Mantle Scavenger Hunt

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Jennifer

I wanted to decorate for Thanksgiving but didn’t want to spend any money. I had bought some things for Halloween (which I justified since we started decorating for Halloween in August). Since the Thanksgiving season is only for a few weeks I decided I would be finding the decorations around my house. So…I went on a scavenger hunt in the house. I was looking for things that were brown, orange, dark yellow, and empty frames. I filled 2 of the frames with orange flowered fabric I’ve had for years while the other 2 have a printed out turkey and the words “gobble gobble” in them.

I decided to take the black frame and stamp the beginning story of Thanksgiving inside it. I used my handy dandy IKEA roll of paper and just stamped the first few pages of a children’s Thanksgiving book. The words are not even and are a little rough looking. I think it makes it look a bit old which I like. This is by far my favorite thing on my mantle.

This side table is the first thing you see when you come in our door so I decided to jazz it up a bit. The stuffed turkey was a gift from my mom several years ago. The “Give Thanks” sign was made yesterday using left over scrapbook paper and burlap. It’s not quite what I envisioned but since it was free I really can’t complain.

The Thanksgiving word collage was a free printable I got from Craftily Ever After. I just adore this site. There are so many other printables and craft ideas. Go over and take a look – I know you will be glad you did.

Do you have any favorite Thanksgiving decorations?

Thanksgiving Dinner Conversation Starters

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Jennifer

We always have family dinners because I think it’s an important as a family but also because I love to hear what my kids say (most of the time).

For example, tonight my husband yawned and said, ” I’m pooped.”

Our 8 year old promptly said, “You mean you pooped in your pants. Gross. You stink.”

That kind of conversation while I’m eating I could probably do without.

I did however find some Thanksgiving Dinner Conversation Starters on the Skip to My Lou website. These would be lots of fun if you are having a dinner with a few generations. I’ve already printed off a copy and put them in my bag for next Thursday. Get ready to share mom and dad 🙂

Talkin’ Turkey

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Jennifer