It’s one of my favorite holidays this week. All the excitement of the of food, family gatherings, and memories to share. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year other than Christmas, which is starting to catch up with my love of Thanksgiving now being a mom of two boys. The memories made will stay with you for the rest of your life. I remember being little and staying up late Wednesday night before Thanksgiving helping my mom chop and prepare all the side dishes and desserts for the Thanksgiving feast the next day. Each year, it’s fun to laugh about past holidays and memories or to get up-to-date with what is going on in everyone’s lives. Yet, if you have little one, they need something to keep them occupied. And although, Aunt Margaret’s story of when she burned the turkey for the 19th year in a row, isn’t interesting, the adults need a new activity to have fun with as well.
I put together a couple ideas for the kids to stay occupied while everyone catches up and to have fun too. First, coloring placemats…. These are key to keeping a large age range busy. I made a couple from clipart online. Each kid will have their own two to color. Here are the pages if you would like to use for your dinner:
Another idea, is finger painting fall leaves. Take a 8 x 1o canvas and pre-paint an empty tree on the canvas. Then have the kids use their fingers to dot the multi-colored leaves on the canvas. Once it is finished, the kids have a cute piece of artwork to take home with them.
Fall Leaves Finger Painting
Supplies:
8 x 10 Canvas
Finger Paints (Red, Green, Yellow, Orange)
Brown Acrylic Paint
Paintbrush
Lastly, this is a fun idea if you have older kids at your dinner and if you have extra mason jar lids, lying around. I normally do have extra mason jar tops due to crafting with mason jars regularly and brewing Kombucha. Take the flat lids and spray paint them orange. It takes about two to three coats to get them to look right. Then with a hot glue gun, take 3 flat lids, lay two lids side by side, then glue the third lid on top in between the two lids. This will make a shape of a pumpkin. With a green pipe cleaner add the stem and the vines of the pumpkin. Take rope or ribbon and tie it around the pumpkin stem. Then on the back, hot glue a window suction onto the pumpkin. Then the kids, have a fun decoration to bring home to remember the festive season.
Supplies:
Mason Jar Lids
Green Pipe cleaners
Rope or Ribbon
Hot Glue Gun
So now that the young-in’s will be pre-occupied, the adults need a fun game to play. I came up with this game and will be trying it out this year. So you will need everyone to get a pen and paper, then have them write down three things they are thankful for and then last have them write a reflective blessing. The reflective blessing would be something that is in their life that may be unrecognized or taken for granted that they would like to reflect on and appreciate more during the rest of the fall season until Christmas. Once everyone has written there blessing, put them into a hat. You can be the reader or if someone else wants to volunteer, this person would not be able to participate or guess in the game.Read out the first paper drawn then, have the person to your right try to guess who wrote it. If that person does not match the blessing with the correct person, the person to the first player’s right would have a chance to guess. If this person does not match the blessing to the correct person, then the one who wrote the blessings needs to voice who they are. Then the next “thankful for” will be drawn. Continue to play the game until all cards have been drawn. It’s a fun way to have everyone appreciate what they have in their lives and see how well each of you know one another.
I’m Thankful For… Game
Supplies:
Paper
Pens
Bag/Hat for drawing out papers
I hope everyone has a beautiful and blessed Thanksgiving enjoying the food and each other’s company. Hope these fun activities will give your Thanksgiving gathering a little pazzaz and excitement.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Spirited Essence Works 
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