my holiday cry for help.
Quick.
My oldest daughter thinks we do not celebrate Thanksgiving in a very traditional fashion.
(She’s partially correct.)
Although this hasn’t always been true – our current Thanksgivings do not stir up entirely festive picture-worthy moments. They’ve been good – pleasant, even. Just not family-drenched moments of memory. Something about not having mothers to herald and corral and cajole shifts the tides of holidays. But I’m the mother now – and sometimes I need to be reminded that it’s my job to be Official Holiday Memory Maker. The torches have been passed.
I keep trying to remind her of all the Thanksgivings of the past. Ones spent at my family’s Virginia farm with cousins coming from every direction. (Mostly north though.) Of Thanksgivings spent with framily and the effort we spent one year creating gorgeous tiny pumpkin centerpieces for every single place setting. (And we were in double digits for sure that year.)
But she seems to have the memory of a young person.
I’ve been pinning ideas here and there on Pinterest.
But this morning finds me mostly without a car and short on ideas to evoke some sort of memory for what will be Riley’s last Thanksgiving at home as a high school student.
So.
Amid all of your own busy pre-family-big-day celebration plannings – can you toss me an idea or two?
(Preferably easy, preferably low-cost and preferably amazing!)
Go!
4 Comments
Alicia
We have colored paper leaves on which I wrote many Bible verses about thanksgiving as well as a coordinating prompt to choose a song for everyone to sing, or to share a major blessing form the past year, or to pass on to this generation a great story of God's faithfulness from the past, or to share why you are particularly thankful for one other person at the table, or one particular person that is not with you, how you came to salvation, or how a particular passage of Scripture changed your life. The leaves have been randomly passed out or scattered across the table and self-chosen, about two per person and we go around the table and share our hearts. It's always been a very special time for us, and the leaves are very portable and can go wherever we are for dinner that year.
kimmie
visit aholyexperience.com and print out here Thanksgiving Tree project – easy , meaningful, and everyone can take part.
Melissa A
We did a bunch of leaves just traced ones from the backyard and cut them out of construction paper. Strung them on the Mantle with twine (we have no mantle… ha!). We've all be writing what we're thankful for. Easy and cheap and most of your kiddos can cut their own leaves. If you used scraps of fabric instead you could mod podge (make mod podge with a container of cheap elmers glue mixed with water) them to a canvas with all your gratitude on it. THat way she gets a visual representation for memory.
Or have everyone create a I'm thankful for riddle or 3. Pass out the combined list to everyone and let them do a scavenger type hunt to try and find or discover the items their siblings described. After times up the one who gets the most won wins an ambiguous secret prize (all of the family pig piles them :-p) I'm thinking on my feet here so perfect this idea on your own!
Jessica S
We are trying something new this year. We are putting a white or light colored table cloth on the main eaton table and then having everyone write on it what they are thankful for. We will then continue to use this table cloth each year until it is full.