Thanksgiving Archives - Page 2 of 3

Thanksgiving for Kids- A Cornucopia of Prayer

November 20, 2012 By Deirdre

Years ago I was taught to pray for the area I lived in, the city and state I lived in, my country and the world. It was a simple prayer exercise that lead me to pray for my family and friends as well as people around the world. My prayers became less self focused and more others focused when I prayed this way. I decided the time before Thanksgiving would be perfect to introduce this method of praying to JDaniel. Thanksgiving is a time of thankfulness and gratitude. It is a time when we spend time with family from faraway and sometimes it is a time when we travel to places beyond our everyday world. This Thanksgiving for kids activity is a great way to explore prayer.

Thanksgiving for Kids Activity

JDaniel and I constructed a cornucopia out of paper plates painted brown as a visual reminder of those prayer areas. We filled the open end of the cornucopia with fruit and vegetables. The fruit stands for fruitful prayer. The vegetables were added just to balance the fruit. I wish I had a deep reason for having them there.

My family and I having been praying from the front of the cornucopia back each night. I think it has helped us each to focus on the world around us and the world beyond us. Our prayers are not as much focused on our family now.We are also trying to keep our eyes open when we are out and about to find prayer needs in our neighborhood, city and state. It has been wonderful to see the world through eyes of prayer. The our local world is filled with blessings we can thank God for and areas of concern we can ask him help with. We world beyond the one we drive around in has been a little bit harder. We can pray for things we hear on the news or global issues like famine and lack of peace. I think we may need to choose areas of the world to focus on and read about to broaden our world view.This has been a wonderful prayer tool for my family.

If you like this Thanksgiving for kids activity, here are a few more that you will like:

Lantern Turkeys

Handprint Turkey Puppets

Turkey with Food Feathers

Turkey Hat

Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey- Read.Explore.Learn.

November 16, 2012 By Deirdre

Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey loves each and everyday to the fullest. Everyday is an adventure until he finds out that he won’t be celebrating New Year’s Eve. The animals on his farm share with him all about Thanksgiving. He hears about its history and how it is celebrated today.

Gus decided he needs to head south just as the geese do. Gus isn’t able to fly South. He has to walk.On his journey south he goes through Mexico and continues all the way to the tip of Chile. When he arrives in Chile, he stows away on boat that will take him further south.

When he is found he jumps ship and ends up with penguins. Guess what the penguins announce he is just like the pilgrims. He was looking for a new land that would give him freedom.

What did we do to explore Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey?

Gus Walking Finger Puppet

Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey- Read.Explore.Learn.

Gus needs to run away in the story to keep safe. We made a turkey finger puppet that can run away too. You just put your fingers through the back of the puppet so you can bend your fingers out the front of the turkey and make him run.

The puppet shape was cut out of an old pizza box and painted brown.

Then we added feathers, a center circle and a head with beak to the puppet to finish it up. A few black marker dots gave the turkey eyes. Then he was ready to run.

Here are some of my favorite posts from last week:

Fantastic Fun and Learning created a wonderful soldier craft after reading the book Hero Dad.

Helping Little Hands created an wonderful sculpture to go with the book The Scarecrow’s Dance. I just love it.How have you explored books this week?

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Thanksgiving Kids- Gratitude Turkey

November 13, 2012 By Deirdre

This past Sunday I was teaching a lesson on gratitude and thankfulness to my Sunday school class of kindergartners. We were looking at how filled with thanks giving the Israelites were for all that had been given by God.

When I was brainstorming about how to help the children bring home the concepts I was teaching, the wonderful list of 21 Days of Contagious Gratitude on Inspired By Family Magazine came to mind. The list is filled with everyday items and concepts that children or anyone can be thankful for.

Why I thought couldn’t I create a turkey with feathers displaying each of the concepts covered on the list?

I created paper plate turkey head and placed it on a clothes pin to clip to the front of a basket. Then I gathered together construction paper, clothes pins, and markers to create the feathers.On each feather I wrote one of the concepts on the 21 Days of Contagious Gratitude. I change a few of the terms of their list to words I thought the kindergartners would know. Emotion was changed to feeling for example.When the children arrived in class, we talked about Thanksgiving and what it meant to us. We then talked about the story of the week on gratefulness and I pulled out our gratitude or thanks giving turkey. The thanks giving feathers were spread on floor and the children were invited to come up one at a time to select a feather and tell what they were thankful for.

They nodded their heads in agreement for most things as other children shared. They all agreed that the time of day they were thankful for wasn’t bedtime and the new baby giraffe at the zoo was everyone’s favorite animal. It was fun to hear their answers.

I can’t wait to do this with another group of students. Maybe JDaniel’s preschool teacher will let me share the activity with the class.

Until then I will be putting this thanksgiving or gratitude turkey out on our kitchen table. We will be giving thanks for each of the concepts covered on the feathers. Maybe my husband, JDaniel, and I can pick a feather each night to add to the turkey basket turkey.

The link below is an affiliate link. It was put there for your convenience.

Thanksgiving Kids Book

I love the tie children’s book to activities that we do. I can across a wonderful book to tie to this lesson called Thanks for Thanksgiving. This amazing book by Julie Markes points out that we have things everyday to be thankful for. What a wonderful lesson to share with kids at Thanksgiving time or any other time during the year.

Warning: This isn’t a story as much a a wonderful book that shares reasons for gratitude.It is just a great Thanksgiving kids book.

Describing Thanksgiving Three Year Old Style

November 23, 2011 By Deirdre

Mom is in Timeout and My Time as a Mom is hosting a Kids Talkin’ Turkey this week. I decided to join in and see what JDaniel knew about Thanksgiving.We read several Thanksgiving-related books to build on his experiential background. Then I printed out some coloring pages with Thanksgiving themes and had him tell me about them. Below you will see his responses to each picture.He is not really into coloring so, I bought Wiki Sticks for him to use to outline each picture as we talked about it. He really enjoyed them. Here is what he said:

The Pilgrims traveled by boat to a place where they could spend time with God.

When they got there, they didn’t know how to do anything. That was not good. Squanto had to teach them. He showed them how to plant food and build homes. They lived due to him.

The Pilgrims were thankful that God and the Indians had helped them. They through a feast to celebrate. The food was great! Everyone had lots to eat. Thank goodness they got help! This post is also being linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.

Pause Life for a Moment-Thanksgiving 2011

November 22, 2011 By Deirdre

I am pausing to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage with a cup of hot chocolate sitting on deck trying to enjoy the moments before the rush of the day takes over.

What am I doing today?

8:30
Drop JDaniel off at preschool. He may not want to leave me. He hasn’t wanted to go since his accident.

8:45
Finish packing for our trip to Arkansas to meet up with family at Mount Magazine for Thanksgiving.

11:00
Go to the preschool Thanksgiving performance and feast. This should be fun.

11:30
Attend JDaniel’s preschool Thanksgiving feast. It will be our big meal of the day. We will be flying at dinnertime.

12:30
Return home to get the final things done and recheck that all blog posts are set to run.

1:00
Make sure JDaniel has time to play outside.

1:45
Check to make sure my husband has his suitcase packed.

2:30
Try to make sure JDaniel does potty things that he might not do on the plane.

3:00
Make a hearty snack that includes veggies and fruit. We will be eating at the airport and probably won’t be having healthy foods.

4:00
Head to the airport and fly to Chicago.

5:30
Take out the Star Wars sticker book or magnetic construction site book for Jdaniel to explore.

7:00
Rush from one gate to another at the airport with carry on bags, a booster seat, and pulling rolling suitcases. We have super short layover. I am praying our flight is delayed.

7:30
Fly from Chicago to Arkansas.

8:30
Put JDaniel’s pajamas on while in flight so he can go right to bed when we get to the hotel.

9:00
Land and find rental car counter.

9:35
Drive to hotel that was supposed to be close to the hotel, but turned out to be 20 minutes away.

I am actually hoping everything goes smoothly and we won’t be pausing to long in Chicago.

Each of you probably has fifty million things that are going to keep you busy today. I am praying that you will find moment to pause and enjoy the fall foliage or just sit with a hot drink too.

Muffin Tin Monday- A Breakfast Turkey

November 21, 2011 By Deirdre

I decided to serve a turkey for dinner last week. It was such fun to put together and so simple. The turkey has sausage and bacon feathers along with sausage feet. His body is made of pumpkin spice pancakes. He has an apple and grape eye and a cantaloupe beak.

We had a stack of pancakes that didn’t end up on the platter but did end up in our bellies.

JDaniel had a muffin tin filled with leftover turkey parts for lunch the next day. He did request cheese be added to the tin. Cheese is his favorite food right now. He asks for it at every meal. I also added scrambled eggs to the tin and biscuits.

Marshalls had the cutest tiny fall cookie cutters in stock earlier in the fall. They were perfect for this lunch. I was able to use the leaf cutter for some of the pancakes and the cheese. An acorn cutter worked out well for the biscuits.Do you do anything special for breakfast on Thanksgiving?This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday!

Changing How You Look At Your Mother In-Law

November 16, 2011 By Deirdre

I attend a moms group on Tuesdays called Mentor Moms. We are reading a book and discussing it at table groups this semester. The chapter last week was on mother in-laws. Before the table discussion a few mother in-laws stood up in front of the group and shared from their life experiences.Each mom mentioned how their relationship with their children had shifted when they got married. Some had really wonderful relationships with their daughter in-laws. Some have had a difficult time.

Here are some of the tips they shared with us that I thought you might want to read before you head to Thanksgiving gathering that might include your in-laws:

They won’t live forever so, try to make some pleasant memories with them
Decide if battling over their serving your child two servings of ice cream is worth it.
A thank you note for even something small may begin to melt the coolest heart.
If their needs to be talk about an issue, have their child be the one to do the talking.
Try to include her in a holiday even if you can’t go to her house by calling, sending a card or flowers, or making before or after holiday plans.
If you are going to their house, ask ahead of time if there are things they would like for you to help with while you are there.
If you are going to their house, let them know ahead of time of allergies or limitations your kids might have they may have forgotten. They are older and older people can forget things.

Remember these things one mom said:

She once changed your spouse diapers. She was once up late at night nursing him as a sick child. She helped him learn how to treat you. She taught him how to ride a bike, brush his teeth, and eat with a fork. She introduced him to interests and hobbies he later excelled at. She held him in her arms when terrible things like scrapped knees and bullies came into his life.

I know not all mothers did the things listed above. Some of you may have mother in-laws that were not great mothers and they may have done many things wrong.

For some reason unknown to anyone God did decide that your special guy would be given to your mother in-law to raise.

She may not always be in the right. She may rarely be right in your eyes.I just ask you to think for a moment about how well or not well things have worked between the two of you.

If any of the above tips can help to make things a little better this year, I am thrilled.

Remember there is a little someone in your life that is watching how your treat your mother in-law and they may apply it to a relationship with a mother in-law of their own down the line.

Disclaimer: I truly have been blessed by a wonderful mother in-law. We do have a couple of things we have worked on. 1. She eats a small breakfast, huge lunch and sometimes remembers dinner. I have learned to bring food with us for dinner or to offer to pick dinner up. She loves getting things brought in and I am not longer starving at night. 2. She leaves out all her breakables with the understanding that I will move the things Jdaniel could accidentally destroy.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and Pour Your Heart Out on Things I Can’t Say!

Thanksgiving for Kids- Being Thankful Tree

November 9, 2011 By Deirdre

This special time of year is filled with thankfulness and falling leaves. I decided to create a Being Thankful Tree for my son to use to display people and things he is thankful for.The Being Thankful tree is so easy to make.Materials:

Two pieces of cardboard
Colored paper
Ribbon

Here is how to create a tree: Cut two tree cutouts twelve inches tall out of cardboard. Hint: The tree looks best with all the branches pointing out.One of the tree cutouts will need a slit that descends from the top of the tree down its center leaving three and a half inches at the bottom uncut.

The other tree cutout received a cut from the bottom of the tree in the center. I left four and half inches at the top.Slide the tree cutout with the slit rising from the bottom unto the other tree cut out. Voila! You have a tree. Now it is onto the leaves. Cut oversized leaves out of fall-colored paper.Put a small slit in the leaf for the ribbon to pass through.Put a piece of ribbon in each leaf and tie it off to make a loop.Place the names of people and things that you love the leaves. This can be done once a day leading up to Thanksgiving or at one sitting.JDaniel loved the idea of a thankfulness tree so much that he asked if we could make one for the next-door neighbors!

He has also loved rearranging the leaves and making them fall!Update: He has taken to wearing the leaves of the people he likes that day like a ring on his finger.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday, Mommy Club Wednesday, and several other places.

Thanks to Troops and Their Families

June 3, 2010 By Deirdre

I am so thankful for all those troops and their families that sacrifice every day for our country. Whether you agree they should be where they are or not, you have to acknowledge that they are giving a lot.

When I watch the troops returning from a tour or mission on television, I can see the joy that they have in being home. You can see the bliss their loved ones have in having them come home. I have read many blog entries in the past few months by wives who have had their spouses return. They write with such gladness about their husbands’ returns.

I have also read several great posts about how families have worked at staying in contact with their loved ones. Some have had their spouses record stories on videos that their children can watch. Others have sent special foods they know their loved ones enjoy. (One mom wrote about trying to send her son a pie. It took many months to get to him. I am not sure why.)

I know firsthand it can be hard to have a loved one far away. My sister Kate had a tour in Iraq. Thankfully it was a short tour. She was only gone for several months. The family was able to come and stay with her husband part of the time to help with her children. We were able to have many family members create birthday cards to send to her to celebrate her 40th. Thankfully she was on a base there the whole time.

There are many of you who have loved ones out in the field. They are asked to take risks every day. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for them or for you. Military families have so much to take on without their loved ones here. I don’t know how children grasp it. There are holidays, birthday and anniversaries that you have to be apart. I don’t know how you deal with all that you have to.

I do know that I am thankful to you and your family members far away. I hold you in my prayers!

Great Holiday Cheese Ball

November 24, 2009 By Deirdre

Ingredients

2 8oz. pkgs cream cheese
1 Tablespoon Seasoned Salt
4 Tablespoons finely chopped green pepper
1/2 of 8 oz can crushed pineapple (drained)
4 Tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 cupped chopped nuts (I use pecans.)

Beat cheese with fork or mixer. Stir in ingredients, except the nuts. Roll in chopped nuts. Put on plate and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate one day. Serve with crackers.