Emily Eivazzadeh

For as long as I can remember, my parents have always hosted Thanksgiving at our house. My dad is the primary chef for the meal. Growing up he and I would spend all day on Wednesday cooking for the entire family. He has been known to make two turkeys, two kinds of stuffing, celery casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, canned and fresh cranberries, green bean casserole, and so much more. The one thing that he is not allowed to cook is the dinner rolls, those have always come from my grandma. They are so good my cousins would have dinner roll eating competitions.

Vicki Bradley

Our family celebrates Thanksgiving with a traditional turkey dinner, including pumpkin and apple pies. After dinner, we spread out the Black Friday ads on the floor and plan from there!

Sue Hipp

Thanksgiving at our house is all about getting together with family. We host a group of 35-40 of the Hipp family on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.   On Thanksgiving another gathering  with the Carlson family, another group of 30 plus people. I love to spend time working in our kitchen but most of all baking pies with my grandchildren and brother, Dan.

Sarah Score

For our Thanksgiving day, my husband, my two girls and I wake up and watch the parade on tv while we make morning quiche. Then in the afternoon we go to my husband’s parents’ house for dinner with his family.

HillieRe Wacker

As a child growing up, Thanksgiving was always spent at my uncle’s house, with all the extended family; cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings and grandparents. Before digging into our food, we would hold hands, pray, and go around the table, with everyone saying what they are thankful for. As families expanded, the tradition ended, and everyone started their own traditions. For the last few years, my husband Christian, our daughter Emma (ducky room), and our dog Monkey, have been traveling down to Iowa to stay the extended holiday weekend with Christian’s parents and brothers.

Jeannine Olson

Thanksgiving is a great time to really focus on teaching gratitude and how to live with a thankful heart all year round. We love these easy paper plate turkeys to help get those creative juices flowing during these cold snaps, and they are the perfect way to focus on gratitude!

The possibilities are really endless, but some of our favorite things to put on the feathers that are helpful for kids to think about include:

• Their name – Add one letter per feather, include a middle name and/or last name if you need to fill up more letters!
• What they’re thankful for – Help your child brainstorm what they are thankful for and help them write one thing out on each feather. We end our day with prayer so our little one is used to thanking God for a variety of things each night. When trying to brainstorm for these feathers, it helped her to be prompted with something like, “Remember when we say ‘Dear God, thank you for… what sorts of things are you thankful for? Let’s write them down here.”
• Family Members – These turkeys can be a great way to help kids think about their family unit. Each feather can have the name and/or role of each member of your immediate or extended family.
• Favorites – You could come up with categories and ask your child to name their favorite of each…for example, favorite animal, favorite food, favorite book, favorite song, etc. Then you can talk about how to be thankful for all of those things and praise God for His creation!

Another reason we love the paper plate turkeys, is because they are truly so easy and you likely have the majority, if not all, of the materials needed.

Materials Needed:

• White or brown paper plate
• If using a white paper plate, you’ll also want brown paint and a paintbrush.
• Yellow construction paper or foam paper (a small piece is fine, this is just for the beak)
• Construction Paper in various colors
• Scissors
• Paints and/or markers
• Craft Wiggle Eyes
• Glue

Instructions:

1. If using white paper plates, paint brown and let dry.
2. Use scissors to cut feathers out of colored construction paper.
3. Use scissors to cut small triangles out of the yellow construction paper/foam paper for the beak.
4. Using markers or paints, write on and decorate the feathers, leaving room at the bottom third of each feather to glue onto the back of the plate.
5. Fan out the feathers and add glue to the bottom third of each. Press the plate on top of the feathers.
6. Glue on the eyes and beak.

There you have it! Easy as that! You can make a whole family of turkeys and display them proudly all November as a reminder for all the things you’re family is thankful for.

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