Five for Friday – Thanksgiving Treats
It’s kicking into high gear now! We are diving headfirst into the holiday season, starting off with Thanksgiving this next week. It’s so exciting, yet can also be a bit overwhelming.
Today, we’d love to share a few ideas to help your Thanksgiving be a memorable one and hopefully save you a bit of stress at the same time.
Something to help:
If you are hosting Thanksgiving, no matter the size of guest list, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out exactly how much food you should prepare in order to be plenty for everyone, but also not feed an army or create a lot of waste.
Here’s a downloadable chart that will help you map out how much you will need to make depending on the amount of people you will be serving and the type of dish or drink you’ll be offering.
Something to cherish:
Traditions are such a big part of celebrating the holidays. Research shows that traditions make children feel more secure. They also promote healthy relationships between generations, and they don’t need to be lavish or complicated at all.
One inexpensive tradition you might consider is creating a write-on tablecloth. You can purchase any white table cloth, place a plastic tablecloth underneath (to prevent the marker from going through to your nice dining room table), set out some sharpie markers, and invite your guests to leave a message or sign their name. Children can draw pictures, you can trace a baby’s handprint or footprint, and if someone stains it, that’s ok…you can draw a circle around that and write a funny story about what happened and date it. Each year, you can get out the tablecloth for new messages to be added, and it will become a beautiful tradition to look upon. Don’t worry if ex’s are on the tablecloth…you have to place the gravy boat somewhere, right? Ha.
Something to listen to:
While you’re enjoying your meal together with friends, family, colleagues, or whoever you might be blessed to share your table with, having a nice playlist for the occasion is pretty essential. We’ve created a playlist for your event, which will hopefully help to be one last thing for you to worry about, and provide a jazzy retro turkey dinner dream. 🙂
Something to entertain:
There are usually lots of different age groups represented at the Thanksgiving table…people you might hold dear, and others you might not know at all.
We’ve included a few fun games that are easy to play around the table as in icebreaker, entertainment, or to help create some sweet laughs. There’s ISpy for the younger crowd, Would you Rather (a personal favorite of my daughter, Bella), and a bit of Thanksgiving Trivia for the trivia buff in the group.
Something to give:
After the celebration is over and the guests prepare to leave, why not share a small gift as they head out the door. A blessing bag can be a simple paper bag with a template glued on and filled with a few different little items you would like to bless your guests with. You can click the link to download a Blessing Bag printable as well as thanksgiving gift tags to put on each of the items you give as well.
Another idea I saw recently was a host that handed out Christmas ball ornaments filled with egg nog, a note, and guests grabbed a donut off a donut board on their way out to have a bit of dessert later at home. Too cute.
Bonus:
Don’t forget to grab your eco-friendly to go boxes for your guests to take home leftovers!
We would love to hear any Thanksgiving traditions you have that are special to you…be sure and let us know!
As much joy as there is surrounding Thanksgiving and spending time with family and friends, it can also be a painful time remembering those we have lost that used to sit around our Thanksgiving table. It can be a beautiful time to celebrate the precious life of your loved one and give thanks for them. You can make their signature dish or their favorite dish and share about them at the table. Grab those photo albums and movies out for a fun time of sharing memories as well. If you decide to start the tradition of a write-on Thanksgiving tablecloth, maybe encourage guests to write a favorite memory that you all can look back on through the years.
One thing is for sure, we are so incredibly thankful for YOU this Thanksgiving and all the ways that you give hope to the Roma in Romania by your involvement. We pray that you have an incredible Thanksgiving!
Grateful for you,
Rachel
*Any time you shop Amazon, you can jump on over to Amazon Smile, choose Forget Me Not Ministries as your charity, and every time you shop, Amazon gives some to FMN. It’s a really great way to bless at no extra cost.
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