Thanksgiving Crafts and Traditions

Thanksgiving is coming up next week, and it's a wonderful holiday.  With the December Dilemma around the corner, I like to make a big deal about Thanksgiving.  As an American it's a wonderful story about the founding of our country, and about overcoming the long shot odds.

Both of my girls got to participate in craft projects this holiday season.  EG did her project at school, which I absolutely love.  It's simple, easy to do, and a 2-year old is perfect at being able to do the project and keep their hand print nice.

I could totally see doing this, and them making it into a nice photo frame to put a Thanksgiving portrait in.  My family always used to do family photos over Thanksgiving. At my cousin Lezlie's house we would all gather up the stairs, and my dad would take the photo.  It's nice to have those photos through the years, and it would be cool to do a photo frame with the kiddos prints to hold them.

Yes, I know, EG's face isn't looking too good.  She keeps picking at her boo-boos. Moving right along...

Ocho's project was done at her school too.  Okay,fine, at her Mommy and me class. But still, it's also something you could do at home.  We started with stamping the hand and footprint, then cut them out and made a turkey.  You can get better directions here...

Here it is with just the footprints and the hand prints.  I think it might have turned out more turkey'ish if I had only used one foot, rather than two, or if I had turned them the other way, so the feet come together, rather than apart.

Here she is all done up- with a beak, some eyes and a waddle.  I'm going to put this in Ocho's portfolio, but if you were hosting thanksgiving you could also have your child make different ones for each person, attach them to toilet paper rolls and use them as name places.  Or as part of the centerpiece.

The other Thanksgiving tradition I'm about to start is to change up how we say we're thankful around the table.  My teacher in Ocho's class gave me this idea, which is to use M&M's.  People pick an M&M or two, and then they have to be thankful for something which corresponds to the color of the candy.

Red- Serendipity (this is probably the hardest)
Blue- People
Green- Things
Yellow- Funny things
Orange- Adventures
Brown- Places

We went around the room and shared one or two each in class.  Here's what I'll share here on my blog.

Red- I'm thankful for the serendipity of my neighbors Joe and Michelle and their kids.  They have shared a lot with us, and I'm thankful that they are there (most of the time, wink wink)

Blue- I'm thankful for my family- which is what people usually say on Thanksgiving.  But this year I'm extra thankful for my Dad, my sister, my in-laws.  Having lost my mom, having them means so much more.

Green- I'm thankful for my scrapbooks and my photos.  I'm thankful that I'm making some sort of order for my kiddos, but also thankful for all the ones my mom kept in a drawer.  It's even more important to have these mementos now.

Yellow- I'm thankful for 2-year-old Amelia Bedelia-like EG.  Yesterday we were learning about baseball with her baseball set.  I told her to swing the bat.  She ran over to the swing hanging from the tree, put her bat on it, and swung it.  Love that girlie!

Orange- I'm thankful for our camping trip when my mom died.  As I mentioned earlier, I had to be somewhere, and I'm glad I was there.

Brown- I'm thankful for EG's school, Growing Garden.  It's a safe, warm, loving environment that she's been growing-up in for over two-years now.

What about you?  What are you thankful for?  Care to take a virtual M&M?