Turkey Time

As tempted as I was to start talking Christmas once we put the Halloween decorations away, this year, I am determined to not let Thanksgiving be overshadowed.  It really is an important holiday and I would like to teach Amelia about "thankfulness" early on.

Easier said than done.  We sat down to make a Thankful Turkey and talk about things we are thankful for.  She obviously did not understand what I was talking about, so I tried a different approach.  I asked her what things make her happy and we also talked about the best part of her day in an effort to come up with something more concrete.  I didn't get much, but the two things she mentioned were Truman (our dog) and Daddy.  Ouch.  I added that I was thankful for our health (since we've all been sick in the past month and we are currently all well). 

Making the turkey was the fun part.  After a recent visit from my PAT educator, I realized the importance of allowing Amelia to tear things--something I usually avoid letting her do at all costs!  We tore up brown paper for the body, added a face with googly eyes, and some scrawny turkey legs.  I cut out lots of extra feathers so that we can add more things we are thankful for daily.  Since the pictures were taken, Amelia's added "books" and her friends "Nate and Grace" who had us over for a great playdate on Friday.  I added "Amelia" for obvious reasons and also "grandparents" since they treated us to a child-free night on Saturday so that Jason and I could go to dinner and a movie.  True, we ended up deciding to rent a movie instead of seeing one at the theatre so that we could come home and build a fire.  But, Amelia spent the night with grandma and papa so we got to sleep in and get some things done around the house before she rejoined us mid-morning.

I'm on the lookout for some more Thanksgiving projects before its time to dive into Christmas.  I'll be sure to post of picture of our fully feathered Thankful Turkey!