this past weekend, i finished most our preparations for thanksgiving. our pantry, two fridges, and two freezers are packed with food, and supplies. i am hoping to enjoy the five days off with my hubby & kids, even if it means alot more work now.
our thanksgiving holiday includes playing flag football, we try to get all ages to play. this year we are also making plans to have a game of kick ball. we have a big family meal packed with all the traditional food, during which we share things we are thankful for. then once the kitchen is clean we head off to the movies. {i think we’ll be seeing disney’s “the princess & the frog” this year.} then we start the decorating for christmas!!! {one of my favorite parts}
one side holiday tradition in our home, i make activity books {each based on the person’s age} for pre-dinner/appetizer time before the big thanksgiving dinner. this helps to keep everyone as a group, interacting with one another pre-dinner as the “is it time to eat, yet?” sets in…
this year, i found good, free thanksgiving printables for kids right here, and here.
and, at crayola.com, {click here} you can turn digital pictures into coloring pages!!! so to make our activity books more personable, i am including past thanksgiving pictures of our family as black and white coloring pages. they are very cool. in this months familyfun magazine, they offer the code PRRVBTR2 which offers you 24 hours of free features on crayola.com. put the code to use!!!
also, i love the place cards that blonde designs offered…i will definitely be using these!
what are your thanksgiving traditions???
Jane, such great ideas and traditions. I actually printed out some cute "fill in the blanks" (adj, nouns etc) for the kids too, now i am loving the crayola coloring pages!
I am hosting over 30 people for thanksgiving and i always do the crossword puzzles or some sort of coloring pages as well. So much fun to decorate the tables.
Also we have a ginormous family {mostly in AF} so they all the boys go and play some football. Let me know on the time you guys are playing over here and maybe we can join in the fun there too {if you need more players}
I am starting a new tradition this year…BINGO! My mom always does it, but since I am hosting the taylor side this year, were playing! I have tons of dollar toys that they choose from and there are 19 kids playing! Crazy but fun.
Oh and we are dying to see the "Princess and the frog" but it doesn't come out until Dec. 11th.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING…. I am thankful to have you as one of my neigbors but also one of my best friends..and I LOVE you all to pieces… especially your little ones 🙂
Holy Thanksgiving Awesome Momma rock star. So far my Thanksgiving plans are: schedule in calendar to make time to think about Thanksgiving and what need to do for it tomorrow. Hmmmm…..maybe I'm coming to your house?!? 🙂
Oh Jane, I bet you put out a beautiful Thanksgiving. Valentine's do things the paper plate way–lots of food, less clean up.
(Although my MIL is steeped in tradition and I like that just as well.)
Jane you are so fun-what a great Thanksgiving you all are going to have, it sounds perfect-you are so creative! Thank you for sharing your ideas and the links, they are great!
Jane thanks for the links, since I'm not much of a cook, I told my Mom I would be in charge of the activities and I used all of your ideas!! Happy Thanksgiving.