Hello, friends! My favorite week of the year has arrived! I just love everything about Thanksgiving. And in gratitude to all of you for reading and following our family’s homesteading and homeschooling shenanigans, here are a few of our favorite Thanksgiving week traditions, including two new ones we are adding this year! We hope you enjoy, and if you do, please pass on to another family. Happy Thanksgiving!
A Few of Our Favorite Thanksgiving-y Things
The 24 Days of Gratitude Challenge
Gratitude isn’t instinctual. It must be practiced and cultivated. Join us in instilling a true heart of Thanksgiving in our families with our free PDF here: 24 Days of Gratitude PDF
Early-Bird, Thanksgiving Dinner Skill School
Let’s cook up a feast of gratitude with our kids! Get our kid-friendly, turkey-day cooking tutorials here: Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Dinner Skill School!
Five Kernels of Corn
Yesterday, in reading the first Thanksgiving story to our kids, my husband and I were reminded of a beautiful, sobering tradition. We read how the pilgrims placed five kernels of corn on each plate at their feast in remembrance of the days when their food rations had been limited to just that: five corn kernels. Growing up, we added to this tradition the sharing of five things each we were grateful for that year. We think it’s time to revive this tradition, and we hope you will agree.
Popcorn Garlands!
Legend tells us that the Native Americans taught the pilgrims to not only plant corn, but pop it as well! I hope that this is true because what a beautiful image that is; the Native Americans squatting around an open fire, showing what magic comes when a handful of golden kernels are dropped into sizzling oil! Can’t you just imagine the look on the pilgrims’ faces when the first white puff popped out of the pan?
To remember the Native Americans this Thanksgiving and how they helped the pilgrims survive that second winter, our family is going to pop corn and string it into garland feasts for the wild birds.
Hey, good lookin’! Whatcha got cookin’? Throwback, Thanksgivingy Tunes
If you’re looking for something funky to listen to while you’re cooking up that grub, here’s our fun Thanksgiving Day playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/0q2pC0eZDNC8sHQWs8zk8f?si=BwPwkrXKSO2dTetywv9zGQ
Sing a Hymn of Grateful Praise
There is nothing quite like starting the Thanksgiving feast with a hymn of gratitude. Above is our family’s favorite, ready to print and put at your table.
“CHRIST OUR LORD, TO THEE WE RAISE THIS OUR HYMN OF GRATEFUL PRAISE!”
Thank you for reading!
Love, Candace Arden
