Giving Thanks Together

Posted in Blog on November 14, 2011 by Sarah Aadland | 3 responses

How do YOU help your kids – along with everyone else – observe Thanksgiving mindfully? Share your ideas and have a chance to win Buddha at Bedtime!

We’re doing our best to make Thanksgiving thoughtful this year.

  • Thoughtful Turkey – We found a local, humanely produced turkey that we’ll be able to pick up at the farmer’s market on Wednesday thanks to Bar 5 Farms.
  • Homemade, low key decorations – We spent a beautiful morning today harvesting pine boughs from the backyard and transforming them into a wreath and several pots full of greenery just waiting to be illuminated with our new LED lights.
  • We’re planning to opt out of Friday’s madness, spending the time as a family instead.
  • And we’re going to continue last year’s gratitude ritual.

Last year we tried making a Gratitude Garland:

  1. Let the kids sponge paint brown paper (the disassembled insides of a paper bag) with vibrant fall colors
  2. After it’s dry, cut out leaf shapes, hole-punch the top, and pass them out to holiday guests.
  3. Have everyone write (or help young kids write) what they are thankful for (no need to limit it to one thing, or to very important things… make lots of leaves and cover the gamut from “fuzzy slippers and a half hour of John Stuart” to the “healthy birth of our baby”)
  4. Finally, share your completed leaves with one another and string them on a beautiful ribbon or piece of yarn and hang them near the feasting table.

Because my kids are still fairly little and love to craft, I plan recycling this idea next week. But I’m always shopping for other good ones.

In the next week, share your ideas or links for Thanksgiving in the comments section here or on facebook and you’ll be entered in the random drawing to win your very own copy of Buddha at Bedtime!

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About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her family of five. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

3 Responses to “Giving Thanks Together”

  1. Kris S. said:
    November 15th, 2011 at 2:34 am

    The kids like to make some crafty turkeys- either using stuffed lunch bags with hands for feathers at the back and a taped on turkey head at the front… or one similar to your photo but with long crinkly dangling feet! We also have two trees started- one to write things we are thankful for on cutout leaves we can tape on. The other tree is for how we bless others this time of year to get them to think more about doing than getting. On Thanksgiving day, we write something we are thankful for about each person at dinner and then share them.

  2. Meli said:
    November 15th, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    Here’s a great list of ideas: http://www.tipjunkie.com/grateful/

  3. Julie Molloy said:
    November 21st, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    We made a “We are Thankful for…” Thanksgiving tree on white butcher block paper (as long as our table), hung it up on the wall in our eating area. At dinner, we write or draw a picture of someone/something we’re thankful for. My daughter’s helping me prepare Thanksgiving food for our celebration.

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