Thanksgiving Activities

For some people, Thanksgiving Day is about football, or yard work, or hunting. Growing up, I was young enough it was about watching the first run through of “Home Alone” on the upstairs tv – which only got three channels, and the rest were football.

As fun as that was, that’s not quite what I have in mind for our family.

For other people, Thanksgiving Day is about beginning the process of Christmas decorating, breaking out the Christmas movies, and beginning the season of Christmas music.

That’s not my plan either.

But I don’t know what I want to do.

I’ve debated making it the day we work on the family photo album. On one hand, that seems like sedentary work. On the other hand, it also seems like a good way to remember the last year, or the year so far, and all the things we have to be thankful for.

We’ve talked about trying to do something like May Day – secretly leaving a little basket of treats, or seasonal décor, or something to bring a smile to the face, on the door knob of our neighbors. That sounds like a lot of prep work, and certainly isn’t practical when we don’t have a neighborhood or many family or friends in town.

Another thought has been to keep a change jar throughout the year and use Thanksgiving as a time to deliver it to a charity, program, or (secretly) to a family who could use an extra pre-Christmas pick me up.

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions? I’d love some more suggestions for things we can do than avoid collapsing in front of hulu or the television (one of my weaknesses).