Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Bring Thanksgiving Basics BACK!


This year, I've decided to try to bring Thanksgiving basics back!  Every year, we are exhausted after hitting up each family member's house, stuffed and groggy from the turkey Tryptofan!  Here are some of my ideas for how we can make the day more special and to slow down and ENJOY it... I may not use all of the ideas, but I have them on my radar!

Bring the THANK back to Thanksgiving!
Pass a bowl, a pad of paper and a pencil around the table before you start serving up the food and have everyone write something they are thankful for on the paper and put it in the bowl.  Then, after you've served up your food and everyone has started eating, you can pass the bowl around again and each person takes one paper out and reads what it says.  Another option is to skip the bowl and have everyone just say what it is they are thankful for!

Donating to someone who may have less to be thankful for this year
Option 1 - donate food, resources or money to a charitable organization.  The Oregon Food Bank and the Sunshine Division are two in our area that collects food and distributes it to those in need.
Option 2 - donate your time to a charitable organization.  You could do this in addition to, or even instead of your turkey day dinner!  You can volunteer behind the scenes (like sorting donated food) or on the front lines, actually distributing food!  You can also go to a "soup kitchen" and help serve the food to the homeless on Thanksgiving.

Do research on what the typical family in other countries eat/can afford
I wish I could find the site I saw this on, but a while back, I was shown a site that compares the typical meal and how much it costs for different countries.  It was shocking to see the American and European's table compared to the one in Africa with only a little bit of beans and rice and 2 bananas for a family of 5 to share for the week (or something like that) compared to the full feast available to us in one evening.

Local and/or Organic Thanksgiving

Try to make it a goal this year to use only ingredients and items that are from less than 100 miles away!  If you live in an area where that is just not possible, try to buy Certified Organic!  See how many items you can score!  Click HERE for my blog post with some Organic/Natural coupons available right now.

Thanksgiving Eve
If you are a family like ours, we feel  like we have to attend 3 (or more!) events all in one day!  How about talking one household into having Thanksgiving Eve instead of on the day itself, to cut down on the hectic holiday!  Or, have your own Thanksgiving Eve where you can focus on a more quiet evening with just your immediate family.

Kids Crafts!
To occupy the kids so that you don't have to run after them all afternoon (adding to the holiday stress), plan some Thanksgiving-themed crafts for the kids to do!  You can have them make a Thank You card for grandma/grandpa to thank them for being them, or to make a Thank You card for the host.  You can also have them make a collage of things they really like about their lives or the things they have and then afterwards talk to them about what a blessing it is to have those things and explain what it means to be thankful.

Do Family Game Night instead of watching The Game!
Instead of watching the TV, sit down and play a card game or a board game together and make it fun!  Or, if you really are diehard football fans, maybe go outside and play your own football game during halftime (tag football so no one gets hurt!) or other group sport... that is, if it's not too bitterly cold out for grandma!

What other ideas do you have?  Love to hear them!

1 comment:

Amy @ Amy Loves It! said...

Great ideas! I love the the bring "Thanks" back into Thanksgiving. It seems like so many miss this point of the holiday!

And, I am also grateful that my mother could care less WHEN we have Thanksgiving, as long as we HAVE it. The date isn't important (and that frees us up to be with the family that MUST have it on the day OF Thanksgiving!).

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