Muddy Spring

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving and last year and I discovered the blog world, I also realized once again how much Thanksgiving gets quickly passed over. In our family we make a Thankful Turkey every year. This is a box decorated to look like a turkey that has a little slit in the top.* (I'll tell you all about "how" we do the decorating below) Through the month we write down things that we're grateful for on little slips of paper and "Stuff" them into the turkey. Then on (or around) Thanksgiving we "carve" the turkey and read all the things we're thankful for. It's a fun way to focus on what we're thankful for. My kids are small enough it takes some serious coaching with them, but it's still fun. So this month I decided that each day I'm going to blog one thing I'm thankful for. I'm limiting myself to just one every day this month. I'm a little behind already, so

For Today:

I'm thankful for open spaces of land and the lift that they give my spirit.


The "How to" Thankful Turkey (and what I do with it all once it's done.)
First you need:
Kleenex box or something of a similar size
Paper to cover it and decorate: think tail feathers and turkey head

Cover the box with paper using glue or tape. We've used all different colors for this and it really is just to cover up the box.

We use tracings of our hands for the tail feathers. Everyone chooses a different color construction paper and we trace and cut out the shape of our hands. They're layered smallest on top and then fanned out until they look something like tail feathers. Then they're attached to one of the short ends of the box usually with tape--but glue would work. Then copy a turkey head, draw one, cut one out of a magazine and glue or tape it to the other short end of the box.


Once we've read them all I take the hands (now a record of my growing children) and place them on a page with the year. Then I add all the scraps of thankfulness to following pages. It's been a really fun way to remember details of things that get lost as we look back. I need to note too that I am no fancy scrapbooker. I think a glue stick, a piece of white paper, a pen and a sheet protector are all that are needed. Tada! A record of thankful November.

I'll post pictures of this year's turkey once we make it. :)