Can you believe Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK! When did this happen? Wasn’t it just back-to-school time? Didn’t was JUST enjoy a night of trick-or-treating yesterday (or so it would seem)? Sigh… times moves too quickly, especially when you get older.
Thanksgiving used to be one of my most favorite holidays. It still is, but it doesn’t feel the same as it did when I was younger.
When I was a young girl my entire family – including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, would gather for a great, big holiday feast. It was the best! I have so many wonderful memories of Thanksgiving with the family, and all those times us cousins had to sit at the “kiddie table” and how it was a big deal to make it to the grown up table.
As we grew up, got married, moved away and started families of our own, my extended family got together less and less. I truly miss that.
Fast forward to today. Our Thanksgiving consists of me, my husband and our two kids. Its just the four of us for Thanksgiving. It’s not the big, loud, family gathering I grew up with.
My family has our own holiday traditions. Every Thanksgiving morning we watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. As soon as we see Santa arrive at the end of the parade we know it’ time to eat a little something (we skip breakfast because we know we’ll be eating A LOT later on in the day).
Our lunch consists of fresh fruits and veggies, chips, dip, cheese, crackers, pretzels and other “appetizers” similar to these. As we nosh on them we watch whatever football game is on television.
We eat our Thanksgiving dinner between 3:00 – 4:00 PM (give or take). Since my kids DON’T like turkey, we don’t actually make the bird ourselves. We buy a pre-made Thanksgiving dinner from a local store (fully cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole…). I supplement the meal with other sides (stuffing, corn, rolls) and dessert. My kids usually just eat all the side dishes and skip the turkey, which is why we buy a small, precooked one. There is no point in spending hours prepping and cooking a turkey for just me and my husband.
A few hours after dinner we enjoy dessert (pie and/or cake), hot cocoa with marshmallows and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street together before retiring to bed.
Last year we were thrown off a bit because our daughter had to work on Thanksgiving. This year we hope she has off so we can be together all day.
There is a new holiday tradition we’re going to add to our Thanksgiving day from here on out. It’s called Turkey on the Table.
Turkey on the Table is a SUPER adorable little plush turkey that comes with cardstock tail “feathers” you can write on.
The idea behind Turkey on the Table is to have each family family write down on the tail feathers something you are grateful for.
You can utilize it however works best for your family. You can have family members write down something they are grateful for every day and add the feather to the turkey. Or you can write them all down on Thanksgiving Day and share them with the rest of your family and friends. Turkey on the Table can be used in many different ways.
The Turkey on the Table “set” comes with the adorable plush turkey, feathers, pen and a cute little book. Additional feathers can be purchased on the official website so that you can enjoy Turkey on the Table year after year. I would recommend keeping all of the feathers and put a date on them. That way you can look back on them each year to see what everyone was thankful for. I think that would be especially sweet to do if you have little ones at home.
Turkey on the Table also makes an adorable centerpiece for your holiday table.
The best thing about Turkey on the Table… with each purchase 10 meals are donated to families in need through their partnership with Feeding America.
Over the years I have written about the wonderful work that Feeding America does to help feed America’s hungry men, women and children. If you have time you should check out all my Feeding America posts on my site, especially the ones about my trip to Tampa where I got to help out at a food donation site as well as visit a Feeding America warehouse.
For more information about Turkey on the Table, or to make a purchase, please visit TurkeyontheTable.com. You can also follow Turkey on the Table on social media. All of the links are found at the top right of the website.
For more information about Feeding America visit FeedingAmerica.org. They can also be found on social media (check the bottom of their website for the links).
What do you think about Turkey on the Table? Does it sound like something you’d love to incorporate into your family’s holiday traditions?
What is something you and your family do every Thanksgiving that is most special to you? Feel free to comment and tell me about them. I always enjoy reading comments from readers.
Kimberly
*I received a free kit in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
Eileen Richter says
Thats a really cute idea! My kids are at the age they wouldnt do it, but it would be great for a huge get together (like we all remember with cousins and so many people).
We are the same here…even as the kids get older they do run around with their spouses to different Thanksgiving celebrations, so we dont ever get the lounging time like it used to be, watching football and playing games.
Ej says
I really love this, time to create a new tradition