Ok everyone. I know you are busy with Thanksgiving AND Christmas plans. So I am looking for some ideas this year.
First....this will be our 2nd time at home for Thanksgiving in 26 years. The other time was years ago and it was spent at my mom's house. This year it will be at mine with all the kids here. So long story short....I wasn't in much of the planning of the Thanksgiving Day celebrations for 24 years. I just showed up with a hungry belly. Helped here and there and cleaned up. What are some of the things your family enjoys besides the "dinner" part. I'm talking the cutzie things you do for tables and kids.
Then when you are done with those ideas....On to Christmas. We have a family party every year which I love. I only have one brother so we don't have a ton of people. I am looking for some different games and ideas.
My mom and Stan usually does a White Elephant gift story or game. They do such a good job with this, we look forward to it every year.
I usually do the games and some years we do a Secret Santa for a family in town. Instead of buying each other gifts we got the gifts for the SS family. Does anyone have another idea we can do this year? I am hoping for tons of ideas so I don't have to use my brain.....er I mean to change things up this year. My girls have little funds this year so I wanted them to do something or make something for each other that was at little or no expense.
Dinner
White Elephant game
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?
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I'll be waiting with my handy dandy notebook.
5 comments:
I'm no help--everything is fairly simple because it rarely has been anyone other than us and the missionaries. If I think of anything, I'll come back.
We have always cooked Thanksgiving and at Christmas we have done a HUGE open house on Christmas Eve for friends and family. Sadly, we are not doing either this year. I have always just kind of winged it. people have brought games and we've had several going at the same time. As you know I come from a huge family so Christmas Eve we usually had 40 to 50 people I'm so sad we aren't doing it this year. Enjoy cooking and Happy Holidays!!
We do lots of fun things~that is when its our turn!
One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to record 8 items each person is grateful for. They have to be different from what they have mentioned in the past and also different from others. We keep a running list from year to year called our gratitude list. we read it outloud and laugh each time some are mentioned. Remember we have three sons who try to out do each other...;]!
A Thanksgiving evening tradition is we give each of our grandchildren a new Christmas ornament to hang on their Christmas tree, for when they put them up. The thought behind the tradition is to help give a lasting memory of our love for them (even after we are gone...which in neon years away:) and also a start their own decorations for when they marry. Our oldest three are 10 year old now and their ornament collection are one of their favorite things about Christmas. At first it was just a cute ornament. Then I started to put more thought and personalize them. This year I had to go on line for one of our 7 year old granddaughers to find one of Narnia.
Here is another favorite one we do on Christmas eve:
http://auntieswithadvice.blogspot.com/2008/12/jesus-christ-was-born.html
Anyway that is a few of a traditions:)
Have fun and enjoy each other!
~♥
My only idea for this year is to head over to subway and buy turkey sandwiches. Do you think the family would go for that? I could even open a can of cranberry to put on the side :)
Life is completely upsidedown this year, but in all seriousness we are probably just heading over to Mark's nephew's home for an hour or two. We are up to our ears in a mess and there will be no stopping even on Thanksgiving :(
Good luck with your plans. I'm sure it will be great!!
I wish I had some cool ideas for Thanksgiving. We just eat and talk. Good luck! We're doing Thanksgiving at our house too this year. We'll all be crammed in tighter than sardines, but it's o.k. We'll all be together.
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