Thanksgiving Idea- Grateful Turkey

As soon as Halloween is over (OK- sometimes before), the stores start pushing Christmas. Thanksgiving isn’t a big money maker, so they skip right over it. The commercials on TV start telling all the kids what they want for Christmas. Toy catalogs come in the mail. All the stores are having “shop early” toy sales. Kinda hard for the kids not to get caught up in the whole ME, ME, ME attitude. Sometimes it’s hard for even the grown ups to ignore all the media messages telling us we need more, bigger, better.

But for these few weeks before Christmas, we try to focus on the blessings we already have. The things that we are so grateful for, but usually take for granted. Like electricity for example. It went out for a few hours last week, and it was a long morning at our house. Who can live without essential items like a hair dryer for goodness sakes? When the power finally came back on, I actually did a little happy dance. And I’ve appreciated it a little more since then.

A few years ago we started a tradition that helps our family remember how truly blessed we are. We call it the Grateful Turkey.

Around the first of November, I put the turkey on our door. I cut up a bunch of feathers and put them in a baggie in a place where everyone can see them. Every day we try to write down something we are thankful for. We write it on a feather and tape it on the turkey. By Thanksgiving he is full of feathers. The Sunday after Thanksgiving we take all the feathers off and read them at the dinner table. It is so fun to see what everyone is grateful for!

If you would like to make your own Grateful Turkey, I have made up a pattern.
Click the link and it should pop up:
Turkey Pattern

Just print it off, then trace the pieces onto cardstock. Make sure you cut plenty of feathers!
I hope this helps you have a more thankful Thanksgiving with your family. 🙂