Thankgiving Banner: Fall Leaves

I'm woefully, woefully behind in posting, but I wanted to post about our Thanksgiving craft before it was actually Christmas. Since there was a lot going on this year, we didn't do our traditional sign with found items from nature like we have done for the previous four Thanksgivings.

 We did make a decorative banner using the pretty fall maple leaves my mother sent in the mail from Michigan. Just sharpie writing on each leaf and stuck to a couple of pieces of twine. Simple- and I think we will keep it in storage and see how it looks next fall.

I know it is a little late, but I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Fun Lunch Idea: A Shell for a Spoon

It's a little out of season, but M has been fascinated lately with a book about the first Thanksgiving.  (I suppose I can't fault her for trying to learn about American history any time of the year!)  One of the things she thought was neat was that the Pilgrims often used sea shells instead of spoons to scoop up their food.

We had some big scallop shells laying around, leftover from something or other, and M asked if she could eat her lunch that day with one of those.  I was in a bit of a hurry that afternoon and was tempted to say "no," but I couldn't help remembering how many of my crazy ideas M has indulged (spaghetti in the kiddie pool comes to mind).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful day with your family today and enjoy the Lord's goodness together!

 (Gathering nature bits for our annual thankful banner)

Giving Thanks During Preparation

In theory I love Thanksgiving.  But to be perfectly honest, the days and hours leading up to the Thanksgiving meal often find me busy and not terribly thankful (ironically, even a little irritable and grumpy).   This year we had our big meal on Wednesday; so today I decided to try to make a concerted effort to think thankful thoughts while I was making the meal and cleaning.  

I wasn't completely successful (there was that string cheese emergency, for example, when I had to quick eat a piece of string cheese before I bit my husband's head off) but there were some moments of reflective thankfulness.  And what was interesting to me was that I found new things to be thankful for that I probably would not have noticed before.

These were some of the new reasons I found to give thanks to the Lord:

1.  All the interesting textures God has made.  The firm but slightly spongey potato in my hand, the clammy turkey skin, etc. It really is beautiful and amazing.
2.  That none in my immediate family work retail.  We don't have the stress of Black Friday, etc. ahead of us.
3.  Ready access to so much meat when so much of the world struggles to get enough protein.
4.  No family food allergies that I have to work around in my meal preparation.  (What a huge thing that is!)
5.  That all this busyness comes from people.  I'm so glad I have people in my life for this Thanksgiving.  It would be hard to be alone.
6.  For convenience foods.  I feel a little strange being thankful for this because theoretically I'm a bigger fan of cooking from scratch, but what a luxury to be able to choose not to- when time is tight or when one just really doesn't care that much about a particular dish.  It's a boon to live in the age of Stovetop Stuffing!
7.  That if I stopped cooking and cleaning right now, we'd still eat better and in a nicer home than two thirds of the world.  Everything I am doing right now is over-the-top, luxury bonus.  ( Took a little of the pressure off, besides being a reason to be thankful).

Have you found new things to be thankful for this year- maybe things that you've had all along, but have just now struck you in a new way?

Thankful Tree with Pictures

I decided we would try to make a pictorial Thankful tree this year while the girls are little.  For the last few days, I've been asking them to think of things they are thankful for and then giving them the camera to take pictures of their answers.

Today I made a tree out of butcher paper and let them stick the leaves on the tree

 My favorite so far is this leaf.

M's first answer to what she was thankful for was "I'm thankful I have a sister."  I just about melted with the sweetness of it.  :-)

Turkey Crafts for Kids

Maybe your taste in turkeys runs differently than mine, but I think all four of these turkey ideas are really, really fun!

1.  Wooden Spoon Pumpkin Turkey from Naptime Crafters
2.  Pinecone Turkey from Amanda Parker and Family.  I love the crayons as the tail!
3.  Handprint Cookie Turkeys from Somewhat Simple
4.  Fall Leaf Turkey by Babycenter

Three TerrificThanksgiving Books for Kids

I really love Thanksgiving.  Among the holidays, it's one that is relatively untainted by commercialism.  The grit of the Pilgrims is inspiring, and being deliberate about thankfulness to the Lord as a family is so potent.  Plus, because it's not an explicitly religious holiday, I don't feel like it is being irreverent to indulge in some of the fun and silliness that surrounds it.

All that combines to make it one of the holidays that I'm really willing to invest time and energy into making special.

Here are three of my favorite Thanksgiving books.

1.  Most Beautiful Artwork:  N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims by Robert San Souci.  The illustrations in this book are out- of- this- world gorgeous.  Instead of the typical, artificially manufactured fare that you usually find in children's books, these pictures come from art that stands on it's own merit.  They are based on a series of murals painted by N.C. Wyeth for The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York in the 1940s.

I love the play of light and color throughout the book, and I appreciate the way the depiction of the pilgrims challenges the typical conception that they were dour and stiff people.  Lots of life and joy in this book- without being saccharine.

The author consulted many sources for making text, and the writing is just fine.  (although, really better for older children.  My little ones just look at the pictures for now).

2.  Best Text:  Tattered Sails by Verla Kay.

The illustrations in this book are rather good too, but it is the text that really stands out.  Tattered Sails tells the story of a Pilgrim family's difficult voyage across the Atlantic (not necessarily the Mayflower, but it could have been) and ends with their thankfulness at settling into life in the New World.

Verla's Kay's writing style is impressionistic.  Instead of straightforward prose, she uses short staccato phrases strung together to paint a poetic picture of life during that time, and I think it really works.  Our family have several of Kay's history stories, and we read them over and over.  It's rhythmic without being trite.

3.  Most Fun: Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton.  This isn't necessarily a Thanksgiving book, but it's about a silly turkey, and it's humor is just right for toddlers.  So fun!

So...I'd love to read about your favorite Thanksgiving books.  Please link up! (or leave a comment)

Thankful Tree Inspiration

Tomorrow I'll be sharing our plans for this years' thankful tree, but for now, here is some wonderful inspiration from around the web:

1.  Children's hands make great fall leaves as shown by Crafts by Amanda

2.  You could make individual thankful trees out of paper towel rolls like they did at Motherhood Moments.

3.  Scrap the tree idea entirely and go with an erasable blessings board.  The tutorial is at Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss.

4.  I love this artfully done printable for a thankful tree.

5.  The Red Thread came up with the idea for this reverse advent tree.  Each day her family filled it with something that they are thankful for.

6. Parent's Yarn Thankful Turkey is so cute!
7.  I really like the look of the white spray painted branch at Better Homes and Gardens
8.  The Artful Parent shows you how she made her pretty leaf garland.
9.  This child-decorated thankful box is a good idea from No Time for Flashcards.

Fall Handprint Art Ideas

Check out these clever fall handprint ideas from around the web!

1. Turkeys from Share and Remember
2.  Candy Corn from The Education Center
3.  Native Americans from Hand and Footprint Art
4. Apple Trees from All Kids Network

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderfully joyful time with your family today!

(This year's nature Thanksgiving banner is simpler than last year or the year before because I'm scrambling a bit for time. We took our first family camping trip at the beginning of this week, and my laundry room is overflowing with heaps of dirty clothes right now!)

Thanksgiving Place Mat Craft

M likes using this placemat everytime she eats these days.  As a plus, it helps remind her where everything goes when she sets the table!

 Materials Needed:
11 x 17 piece of construction paper
2 or more sheets of Autumn or Thanksgiving Scrapbook paper
Laminating paper or contact paper
Gluestick
Scissors

1.  Trace around a plate, glass, knife, fork, and spoon with a pencil on pieces of scrapbook paper.
2.  Cut out each piece.
3.  Have your preschooler cover the backs with a gluestick.
4.  Show the child where to put glue each piece (maybe taking the opportunity to talk about where items belong at a place setting)
5.  Laminate or cover with contact paper.  (Make sure the lamination extends a couple of centimeters beyond the construction paper because you don't want to risk the construction paper getting wet)

Thanksgiving Nature Banner- Year Two

Last year around Thanksgiving time, M and I made a thank- you banner to the Lord out of items we had found in nature. We really enjoyed the activity, but I remember saying at the time that I didn't know whether or not we would continue it as a family tradition.

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while know that shortly after Thanksgiving last year our family had a fire that wiped out just about everything in our apartment. The Thanksgiving banner was singed, but was still on the wall when we walked through our burned apartment for the first time. It became a powerful symbol to us of God's goodness through difficulty.When Thanksgiving rolled around this year there was hardly a question in my mind about whether or not we would do the banner. The year has brought so much to be thankful for, and I love the potential the banner has for drawing our attention to both the continuity and changes in our family history.
This year it wasn't just M and I collecting bits and pieces from nature, but little baby G was with us too! And instead of taping the words onto a rented apartment wall, we put them in the living room of a home that is our very own. In the space of one year so much has changed, but God's grace to us has been very constant!

(I don't know if you can see it or not, but several letters are made out of some very beautiful blue bird's feathers that we found in the park as we were hunting for nature materials- it was a very fun find!)