Fun Thanksgiving Ideas for the Entire Family
Thanksgiving is always a fun time of celebration and eating with your family. Here are some ways to make Thanksgiving even more fun for your family this year.
Thankful cards – Make a card for each family member that will be your guest for Thanksgiving this year. On each card, tell that person what you love most about them, and why you are thankful for them.
Recipe books – A few months before Thanksgiving, write a list of each family member. Beside their name, make a note of their best dish. Call each member and ask for a copy of that recipe, plus one or two of their own favorites that they’d like to share. When you have all the recipes ready, compile them into a booklet and print them, using your computer and printer. (You can also use professional services, if you wish, to make a longer-lasting recipe book.) After your guests all arrive for your Thanksgiving dinner, give them each a copy of your special recipe book.
Mini family scrapbooks – Gather family pictures, if you don’t have many pictures, take them to a local copier and have extra prints made. Purchase mini scrapbooks at a scrapbook supply store, along with stickers, markers and various scrapbook supplies. Create miniature family scrapbooks, using one picture per page. Write what you are thankful for, in relation to each family member, on their designated pages. On Thanksgiving Day, give a copy of your mini family scrapbooks to each family member as a memento.
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Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Cuddle & Coo Doll
Little girls love playing “house” and “family”. I remember when my daughter was playing with her dolls, and how much time she put into creating her characters, and “setting up” her play area. She put more time into that than actually playing. Of course, having a diversity of dolls and other props was very important.
If you have a little girl, these dolls are beautiful, and they look so realistic!
I wish my daughter was still a little girl, playing with dolls, but she is growing up and becoming a beautiful young lady.
The Mattel Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Doll
- Interactive baby doll that can be nurtured
- Girls can choose their own name for their doll
- Real Loving Baby will recognize when her name is spoken
- Has a multitude of realistic baby actions
- Measures 16″ tall
Get your own Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Cuddle & Coo Doll - Lavender Velour/White Outfit
What Happy Parents Do: The Loving Little Rituals of a Child-proof Marriage
by Carol J. Bruess, Ph.D. and Anna D. H. Kudak, M.A.
If you are married with children, you no doubt already know firsthand that for most couples marital happiness takes a dramatic dip during the years when we are having babies and raising children. Because you’re busy moms, you are probably also aware that, according to researchers, approximately two thirds of couples experience a dramatic increase in conflict and hostility after their first baby arrives.
For most of us who are both parents and partners, we’ve experienced the decrease in a couple’s emotional intimacy and cooling of romance that seems to appear out of nowhere – like a rainstorm on a sunny day – when children enter the scene.
Here are two bits of good news:
- Most couples are experiencing the same thing. Good to know, isn’t it?
- And most importantly, there is something you can DO to maintain and/or re-establish emotional connections with your spouse. Based on our own research with happy couples across the country, we have a few concrete ideas for what to DO.
The secret? Developing and maintaining loving little rituals. Unlike the rigid or more formal rituals you might experience in church or on major holidays, loving little rituals tend to be smaller and more subtle. Daily. Often just momentary. Like the couple who, despite their children’s best efforts to interfere, always share a theatrical smooch as they return home from their workday. Or the couple that bravely told us they have their own dance parties (surprising each other with their favorite tunes, of course) in the basement while their children are fast asleep.
Rituals of connection come in all shapes and sizes, are powerfully predictable, soothingly steady, and often plain-old silly activities that set and re-set the tone in your marriage. Most of the loving little rituals shared by the happy couples in our research teach us we can choose to shift our attention (however briefly) from our kids to each other.
For instance, one couple we talked to taught their children to let mom and dad sleep-in on weekend mornings. When ready, the children were summoned with a joyful and excited voice by their parents, “kiiiiiids!” to join them for a whole-family snuggle session. Great idea, isn’t it? The lesson is rather great too. To be healthy, your marriage and family both need to win. It’s so easy to nurture one at the expense of the other, but the cost is high if you do. We know what you’re saying: “But I don’t have the time or energy left to nurture my spouse AND take care of everything else I need to do!”
The fact is, loving little rituals take almost no time and very little energy. The best rituals are rather brief, totally free, and emerge simply. The most important ingredient in any connection ritual is intention. You simply have to DO something. Make an effort. Pick a time. Create an opportunity. Like the couple that decided every day at 11:11 a.m. they would acknowledge their relationship, through a call, email, or text. Or the couple that noticed they had fallen into that all-too-familiar pattern of crabbiness and grumbling. To recover, they initiated a new rule when referring to, greeting, or making requests of each other: All must begin with the phrase “O’ beautiful husband” and “O’ beautiful wife.” For example, “O’ beautiful husband, the garbage is stinky. Could you take it out?” or “O’ beautiful wife, would you mind picking up the kids because I’m running late?” What a beautiful symbolic language ritual, reminding us that kindness is contagious. We can all – with a little intention — infect our own marriages with it.
No matter how busy you are, ask yourself if you’re really too busy to make sure your children are getting the greatest start to their lives. Ask yourself if you’re modeling a loving relationship for them. Every day. In every action. With all your might. Because as the happy couples we’ve interviewed have told us time and again: your marriage is up to you. Why not DO something about it, right now?
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Carol J. Bruess Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Communication & Journalism and Director of Family Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Anna D.H. Kudak, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in Interpersonal & Family Communication at the University of Kentucky and an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. They are the authors of WHAT HAPPY PARENTS DO (Fairview).
