Thanksgiving

This is the time of year where we look back and are Thankful for all that we have. This is the time of year where family and friends gather and over indulge on all things yummy. Having such a diverse family we do not really discuss  the 'story' of how Thanksgiving came to be, or how misconstrued the 'story' has become. What we do is look at it as a day to be Thankful that we are all together. We cook the traditional Turkey and Ham with all the fixings, because, well, they are so yummy, and we simply spend time together.

This is also the time of year where the schools start sending home cute little projects to work on at home. These projects can be overwhelming to some, and it was definitely was to me at first. We have seen many cute variations of this little tradition, and there are so many easy ways to make it.

This is the 'Disguise the Turkey' project your elementary kids bring home. The teacher will send a page with a turkey printed on it, with instructions to 'Disguise' your turkey so he doesn't become Thanksgiving Dinner. The first time this was sent home, I had not idea what they expected. Do I buy it a costume? Do I Color it, do I cut it out and make it look like something totally different?

What is so great about this, is that there are not definite instructions. This is an imagination exercise that parents and students to together. It really is fun to sit at the dining table, with a box full of craft supplies and think of all the different ways you can make your turkey look like something else. We have seen people turn theirs into a bucket of popcorn, superheros, and even Christmas trees with all the decorations. We have seen simple ones that are just colored over the turkey on the page and we have seen extreme ones where the turkey has been cut out and decked out with a real wreath and real lights.

We are an in between family- right between the minimum needed and too extreme- or at least we like to think that. This is our first Turkey, and was made the night before it was due- even though we had him for a week. After pulling out the craft box, the pickings were kinda slim. We were broke and this was going to be a use what you have kind of craft. We had recently watched that cute Madagascar movie where the zebra dresses up like a clown, and we just happened to have contact paper with a zebra print.

We were able to scrounge up some little pom poms and used those as his clown wig, then we had feathers left over from another project- and what turkey doesn't have feathers? We imagined if our turkey was trying to stuff himself inside of a zebra costume, he'd have trouble hiding his feathers, so of course they were going to stick out. We needed a way for our Turkey to stand up so he could be displayed, so when we cut him out, we glued him to the cardboard round from a paper towel roll. Of course we cut it to size. This is our finished project, shown to you by my daughter "O", and if I must say so myself, I think he turned out to be the cutest little turkey of all time.

I hope when you have this project sent home, that you are able to think outside of the box, or in our  case of 'use what you have', and think inside of the craft box.