Thanksgiving Tip #1:

Hope you had a terrific Halloween! Here's our first Thanksgiving tip, from Suzy Martyn, a parenting consultant and speaker. She is the author of Enjoy the Ride: Tools, Tips and Inspiration for the Most Common Parenting Challenges (a Mom's Choice Award winner)!

Suzy Martyn

"Here's an idea on getting your family in the thankful mood the whole month of November:

In our family, we have a big 'I Am Thankful for Box' in a public area with slips of paper and a pen where each member of the family will spend time to write a little note to each other member of the family. Usually, we get 2-3 from each person. We write what we are thankful for about that particular person (trait) or thank them for something they've done (action). We keep the notes anonymous until Thanksgiving dinnertime where we each take our slips and read them aloud to the family. Then, we tuck these precious notes away as keepsakes. It makes such a big difference in our family as even husbands are showing appreciation to wives, and vice versa. Siblings are saying encouraging things and building each other up."

Oh! I love that idea! I wonder if I could get my husband to participate (even as an "example" for our daughter). Hmmm... This would also be a great idea for teachers to do in the classroom! (Random Acts of Kindness kind of thing.)

I like it too! I was thinking it might be fun for the kids to create a "turkey" version, where you write your thankful thoughts on "wings" made out of construction paper and paste them onto a big turkey cutout, but if they're hidden in a box up until Thanksgiving Day, that might make it more fun too, because no one would know what's on them until the big day....

I think I'm going to try this. Just wondering what box to use. Shoe box with a slot in the top?? I think my daughter would love to decorate it.

If anyone makes a box, try to post a photo of it!

KatesMom

You can keep your turkey idea a surprise by displaying the turkey feathers face down until Thanksgiving, and then taking them down and reading them when it's time.

If you use a shoe box, wrap the lid separately. That way you can reuse the box every year. (If you don't, you have to rip open the box to get to the papers.)

... Guess what? My DH just said he'd do this with us! So cool! I can't wait to get started!

 You know, this is a fun idea for family but since we have a ton of visiting relatives, I created placecards for everyone that had slips of paper hidden inside. When they pulled the tab out of their placecard, I had written a message telling why that person was special in my/my family's life. One year I had everyone help write messages to each other-that was fun too. But I agree, it's wonderful to have for keepsakes. 

Kristina :)

"Believe in the sun, especially when it's not shining" -Barlow Girl song lyric

This would be great for a scrapbook--if you take some photos at Thanksgiving and then paste some of the messages around the photos. Of course I have stacks of photos waiting for scrapbooks. Every time I go to the craft store I think "one of these days!"

Beverly you're right we could do the wings turned around; I think we might do the box though; just trying to come up with a nice design/paper idea for it.

KatesMom

Wow, all great ideas. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. 

I'm going searching for a stray box to put to good use.

Kelli

That's a great idea. I might have to put it into my "idea notebook" for next year. I just can't see myself being able to get something outside of my chores done for the next couple of months. My family will be lucky if they get Christmas presents this year. LOL. No, seriously. 

I do love the idea, though. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I guess b/c it usually means that my family is around and we always have a lot of fun and it really gets me excited about the "Holiday Season." Ahhhh... and I do love a good Macy's Day Parade!

Carrie 

www.MothersPhoto.com  

Please check out my website for information about my Photography. As always, I offer a 15% discount to MLM members!

We do something very similar. We put a huge turkey on the front door inside of the house and we all write what we are thankful for on lots of different color of construction paper and then decorate them and tape them onto the turkey. Then we save all the turkeys from past years and place them around the house to remember back to those years and see how much everyone has grown. The little kids love seeing how much their writing and spelling has changed and how creative they can be now with decorating the feathers.

Meredith

Aw, Meredith. That is so sweet! My DH would not like that fact I was keeping more stuff (I'm a packrat), but it's a very nice gesture. He might agree to save one feather for each person from each year though. Hmmm...