Welcome Wednesday :: Setting the Thanksgiving Stage

With just about a week to go, we’ll all soon be seated around the table, joined by family, friends, and loved ones. We’ll gather together, share stories and laughter and we’ll make a toast to all that we have to be thankful for. We’ll count our blessings which we already knew were many. And yet, surrounded by those nearest and dearest to us, all will seem better – all will seem sweeter. We’ll eat till we can eat nor more, and then likely we’ll go back and eat some more, savoring each wonderful, fragrant dish.

Are you hosting or traveling this year? Are you cooking the meal or are you bringing a dish somewhere, perhaps a pumpkin pie, a decadent stuffing, a gift or a bottle of wine? Will you be polishing the silver, wiping down the crystal, the china? Will you be ironing the linens? There’s much to be done yet! Have you created your menu, started your grocery list? Created a seating chart?

Since Thanksgiving is about family, this is a perfect time to get the children involved. Enlist the older ones to help with the silver and the ironing… there may need to be a little bribery involved! Ask the younger ones to create place cards or help with the table settings. They can create thankful lists and thankful cards, and then you can ask your guests to write down all that they are grateful for. Keep these mementos and over the years you’ll enjoy looking back on them. Have the children collect pine cones for decoration and river rocks. The river rocks can be turned into thankful rocks. Place them in a pretty bowl with a few black Sharpie markers and ask your guests to write away. They will have such fun doing so. These too can be collected over the years.

What do you do to get ready for Thanksgiving? Do you have any special traditions, or activities for the children?