Thanksgiving Eve Traditions

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  It may seem funny that I haven't posted in weeks, and yet here I am on Thanksgiving morning.  I was up feeding my little one at 6:00, and couldn't go back to sleep.  So, I decided to take advantage of the quiet, sleeping house and pop in for a quick hello.

I was going to just repost some fun ideas for Thanksgiving Eve today, but when I went to copy the HTML to paste in this post, I lost it!  So, today's ideas are a repost, but the post itself is new as of today.

What do you do on Thanksgiving Eve?  Are you out Black Friday shopping?  We aren't ever, so it's fun to have some traditions to ring in the Christmas season.  Here are a few of the things we do/ I want to start doing.

THANKSGIVING EVE TRADITIONS
Unwrap Christmas pajamas
Decorate gingerbread houses
Decorate your Christmas tree
Make your Christmas list
Get out the Christmas music (if you haven't already)
Read a Christmas book
Watch a Christmas movie
Make a Christmas countdown  

These are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.  I'd love to hear what you do to usher in the holidays!  I'm always looking for new traditions!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  Enjoy this wonderful day of thanks, and great food!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Nature's Turkey {Simple Art Project For Kids}

Just popping in today with a little project my four-year-old and I did yesterday afternoon.

 

I realized the other day that I haven't made a single turkey with my boys this year, and  Thanksgiving is less than a week away!  The horror, I know.

Anyway, we decided to make a turkey from nature this time around.  I always love how these turn out, and the best part is you don't have to make or buy a single supply!  Mother Nature provides them all.

It's amazing what you can find outside this time of year.  At first glance, everything seems so dead and dreary, but take another look and you'll be surprised with what can be found.  This entire turkey (minus the hot glue and paper) was made from things we found in my in-law's yard.  Making the turkey itself was fun, but the hunt for materials was actually our favorite part.  We gathered leaves, berries, and a pinecone, then hot glued everything on to a white piece of card stock.  So simple, so natural, and of course, adorable!

What kind of turkeys do you like to make at your house this time of year?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Ideas For Your Kids' Thanksgiving Table {@ Or So She Says}

I've been grateful for guest posting lately because it's been keeping me in the blogging game.  Today I'm over at Or So She Says sharing some of my favorite ideas for your kids' Thanksgiving table.  It must be the teacher in me, but I love excuses to decorate for the little ones!

Caravan Shoppe

Come and visit me here for all the fun ideas I have to share.  A few of my own, but a lot of great ideas from others, like this darling printable Draw Together Thanksgiving Set from Caravan Shoppe.  I'm in LOVE!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Printable Thanksgiving Chalkboard Quote

A quick repost for you today.  I actually like reposting every now and again because I'm reminded of what I've done in the past, and have completely forgotten about!  I can usually recall most of my posts, but this one had totally left me.  I'm glad I stumbled upon it again because I need reminded of this every now and again.

Click to Print

  I'm not sure where I came across this quote, but I absolutely love it!  Aren't the words beautiful?  I have to say I completely agree with Mr. Chesterton.  Some days it seems nearly impossible to be thankful, doesn't it?  I believe that's why he says thanks are the highest form of thought.  Anyone can complain, be envious of what other have, but it takes a certain training to cultivate thankful thoughts.  I can speak from experience, that the effort involved in having higher thoughts is completely worth it!   My life is such a much happier place to be when I live in thanksgiving every day.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

November Pinterest Board

Mother Nature is right on schedule here in Utah.  We had a perfectly mild fall evening for trick-or-treating, and the instant November settled in, we got cold, blustery, and even saw some snow on the ground passing through Park City yesterday.  I'm sure not everyone can say this, but I'm ready for it!

Follow Brooke @ blissfulroots.com's board November on Pinterest.

Life with our newborn has been as close to perfection as possible, but it's definitely busy!  As I said in my post last week, you maybe seeing a lot of reposts, and longer time between posts for awhile.  But this little guy is deserving all of my time and energy right now.

So for, today my November Pinterest board.  I can't wait to get going on a few new pumpkin recipes that I have pinned, and Thanksgiving projects.  I love this time of year!!

Click here to check out all my other Pinterest boards, and follow along!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Thanksgiving Chalkboard Printable

While I do have posts for the rest of this week, they'll probably all be short and sweet.  Kind of a busy (but, oh so fun) week, as I'm sure you're all experiencing.

Click to Print

Here's my last Thanksgiving printable for the year.  I'm not sure where I came across this one, but I absolutely love it!  Aren't the words beautiful?  I have to say I completely agree with Mr. Chesterton.  Some days it seems nearly impossible to be thankful, doesn't it?  I believe that's why he says thanks are the highest form of thought.  Anyone can complain, be envious of what other have, but it takes a certain training to cultivate thankful thoughts.  I can speak from experience, that the effort involved in having higher thoughts is completely worth it!   My life is such a much happier place to be when I live in thanksgiving every day.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Turkey Math Game For Kids {In/Out}

'Tis the week of Thanksgiving.  I love this week (can you tell I'm not in charge of cooking and/or hosting Thanksgiving dinner?)!  I feel like it's the first official week of the holiday season.  For me, even anything Christmas goes this week.  I do wait to decorate until the day after Thanksgiving, but there have been a lot of bits and pieces of Christmas creeping up around our house lately.

 I do have some more Thanksgiving posts up through Thursday, but Friday I'll be ringing in the Christmas holiday season!

I've been helping out in my twins' first grade classroom on Fridays.  I get to do math centers with the kids.  I love being there, and it makes me REALLY miss teaching.  

We played this game last time I went to volunteer.  I used this games when I taught first grade as well.  The kids always loved it, and it's a great way to teach addition and subtraction.  You can make this game as generic or holiday-themed as you like.  I'm a bit of a holiday fanatic, so I can't not put some sort of holiday twist on it (hence, the turkey and fall-colored Kisses).

I have all the instructions here for how to play, but in a nutshell you pick a certain number of counters (or candy in our case), and one person hides a few counters under the turkey pot, leaving some outside as well.  The other buddy has to then guess how many counters are in the pot based on the number they began with, and the number of counters on the outside.  Then the buddies switch rolls and play over and over.  You can change the number of counters/candy to small and easy for younger kids, or larger and more challenging for older kids.

I like having my boys record how many counters are in and out each time.  That way they can see the different combinations written out.  I have printable record sheets for the turkey version of the game here.

This game is the perfect way to keep your kids doing a bit of "homework" over the break while having fun, and celebrating this Thanksgiving time of year.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Nature's Turkey {Easy Art Project For Kids}

Just popping in today with a little project my four-year-old and I did yesterday afternoon.

 

I realized the other day that I haven't made a single turkey with my boys this year, and  Thanksgiving is less than a week away!  The horror, I know.

Anyway, we decided to make a turkey from nature this time around.  I always love how these turn out, and the best part is you don't have to make or buy a single supply!  Mother Nature provides them all.

It's amazing what you can find outside this time of year.  At first glance, everything seems so dead and dreary, but take another look and you'll be surprised with what can be found.  This entire turkey (minus the hot glue and paper) was made from things we found in my in-law's yard.  Making the turkey itself was fun, but the hunt for materials was actually our favorite part.  We gathered leaves, berries, and a pinecone, then hot glued everything on to a white piece of card stock.  So simple, so natural, and of course, adorable!

What kind of turkeys do you like to make at your house this time of year?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Turkey Hunt {Fun Thanksgiving Activity for Kids}

Thanksgiving Day is such a fun time to be together, and while the adults are usually content with eating and visiting, the kids usually need some kind of entertainment. 

We did this turkey hunt with my boys last year, and it proved to be a hit!  If your kids are like my boys, then they LOVE hide-and-seek type of games.  This is a quick easy activity that can be put together in just a few minutes.   

SUPPLIES

*Printer
*Paper
*Scissors
*Printed cut out turkeys (see below)

*Paper bag or basket for each child

HOW TO

*One person hides the turkeys (we have an adult do this).

*All the kids go on a turkey hunt to collect turkeys and put in their bags.

*You can color code the turkeys on the back, so each child is responsible for finding one color.  That way each child will find the same amount of turkeys.

*We really don't have a winner (too much fighting involved with that sometimes).  The kids are just trying to collect all their turkeys.

*Turkeys can be hid over and over for multiple rounds.

*You can time the hunt as well to add another fun element to the game, or any other variation you can think of.

Click to Print

You can use the turkeys I made here, but I have to say the quality of the turkeys on my Google Drive page isn't great.  I didn't have time to get these printed out, so I'm not sure what they'd look like once printed.  Often times they'll print out better than what is on the screen, but if you want to use these turkeys, maybe try one trial print to see how they look.  I'd hate for you to print out a bunch and not like them.  There are plenty of other free turkeys out there you could instead.

What do you do to keep your kids entertained on Thanksgiving Day?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

All That We Behold Printable

I believe today's quote is for me more than anyone else.  Two nights ago my husband and I were up all night with a sick little boy.  My boys are seven and four, and sleep really well at nights!  I can't remember the last time we were both up multiple times during one night.  It was rough to say the least- on all three of us.  My poor little guy!  He was home sick from school yesterday, and was worn right out.

Click to Print

As I was pulling sheets of the bed at 1:00 a.m., this quote that I was using for today's printable came to mind.  I have to admit, I wasn't finding a single blessing among the laundry piles and throw up.  But, the next morning I was thinking a bit more clearly, and I realize there were many blessings from our all-nighter.  

ALL THAT WE BEHOLD IS FULL OF BLESSINGS

*I had a working washer and dryer to throw all the smelly clothes, sheets, pillowcases, and blankets into.

*My patient and helpful husband was there with bucket in hand each time the throw up came.

*Our two healthy boys slept soundly all night long.

*Our sick little boy was so patient, brave, and sweet.  He kept asking if it was his fault, and how long until morning.
*This was just a stomach bug.  We have a darling nephew who's going through chemo now, and will need a bone marrow transplant in a few months.
*I had Bath and Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin soap in the bathroom.  Every time we washed (I think we used the entire bottle in one night) the bathroom smelled like fall, and not-so-much throw up.  

I really could keep going, but you get the idea.  So, yes it was a long night, but really just like every situation, there are multiple blessings to behold.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.