Small Memories

Make your Thanksgiving Day celebration more than a family meal. Thanksgiving is always a great time to take advantage of having your loved ones in one place. Here are some ideas to make your Thanksgiving Day special.

Thankful Cards – Make a card for each family member who is attending your Thanksgiving get-together this year. On the card, tell that person what you love most about them, and why you are thankful for them.

These cards can also be used as place cards. To do this, make sure you add each person’s name to the front of the card and keep the message short. If you use the thankful cards in this manner, consider making the cards small so they don’t take up a lot of room on the table.

Family Recipe Books – Have each family member bring the recipe for the dish they bring to your Thanksgiving Day celebration. After your celebration has ended, compile the recipes into a book. Print the books from your computer or have them printed at your local print shop.

To make these books extra sturdy, punch holes in the sides of the pages and add them to a three-ring binder with a nice personalized cover. These recipe books can be given to family members a week or so after your gathering or you can wait and present it to them as a Christmas gift. The choice is yours.

Family Scrapbooks – Ask family members, who attend your Thanksgiving Day celebration, to choose a recent photo of themselves; have a copy made for each family represented at the gathering; and bring the photos to the Thanksgiving celebration. The pictures can be a school picture, picture from work, or family photo. Be sure to have a digital camera handy for people who forget their pictures.

Purchase a mini scrapbook or photo album for each family attending. Consider buying stickers, markers, and various scrapbook supplies to help each family make their scrapbook special. This is a great family activity to begin after the holiday meal.

Family Recordings - Invite older members of the family to sit and talk about what Thanksgiving was like when they were young. Encourage them to give details and talk about loved ones who are no longer with you. Use a camcorder to capture the event or create an audio version to share with other family members.

Please keep in mind when recording that many older family members may not like to be “in the spotlight.” In order to make your “speaker” comfortable, you may have to do your recording out of their field of view. The key is to have them focused on the conversation rather than the camera or microphone.

Whether you choose to make thankful cards, recipe books, family scrapbooks, family recordings, or something else, do something to make Thanksgiving Day special for your family members. Older family members will love spending the time with everyone and younger members will have a memento of special people and times.

As the leaves change color and the weather becomes cooler, we begin to think of autumn. This leads us to thoughts of decorating our homes and yards for the harvest season. Here are a few harvest decoration alternatives that may be just what you need to liven up your stash of autumn decorations.

Harvest is often associated with scarecrows and pumpkins but there is much more to harvest decorations. Consider adding other items to your standard decorations for a fuller, more well rounded display. You may even opt to replace your usual decorations. The key is to introduce items which you may not normally think of as being autumn related.

When you decorate the yard, use things which are often found around a farm, garden, or in the forest. Group several stalks of dried corn and tie them together. These will be used as the backdrop for your outdoor decorations. In front of the stalks, you can add a variety of things such as overturned wooden baskets, wooden crates, a wheelbarrow, or hay bales. These create places where smaller decorations can sit.

Place brightly colored, live or artificial, potted mums on the flat surfaces. Next, add a few plain gourds or pumpkins, if you prefer. You may also want to strategically drape sturdy dried vines around the grouping to give it different texture. On top of the dried vines, place ears of Indian corn, which have been tied together with, twine or ribbon.

Don’t neglect to decorate the porch and patio. Bring some of the elements used when decorating your yard onto the porch. Later carry the smaller elements into your home decor. For instance, if you have used mums in your yard, add a smaller pot or arrangement on the porch as well. If your porch or patio is small, you may choose to use smaller pots. Tie some of the corn stalks to the columns of your home and then tie or glue groups of Indian corn onto the stalks.

For the front door decoration, purchase a basic wreath or create a harvest wreath using grape vines. Spray paint pinecones with either clear acrylic or colored paint and let them dry. Then, hot glue them to the wreath. Add silk mums, berries, or dried fruit to give more color to your wreath. Create a bow using raffia, a wide strip of burlap, or a strip of checkered material. Hot glue the bow to the wreath and hang it on the front door. Consider making a wreath for each entrance to your home.

As we move from the outside of the house to the inside, one of the most important things you can do to create the harvest mood indoors is incorporate autumn scents. You could bake a pumpkin pie, light woody-scented candles, or plug in a small simmer pot filled with herbs and spices. As an alternative to the simmer pot, you may want to add some apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, or a cinnamon stick to a saucepan of water that sits on your stove. With the last method, you would just heat the pan of water on the lowest heat available. Let it simmer for a few minutes and then turn it off before you leave the kitchen.

Once inside the home, use your accents sparingly. Remember, decorations should be accent items. If you have stairs, you might want to wrap a silk or faux garland of fall leaves along the handrail. For a nice touch, put a small display at the base of the stairs. This may be done using a wicker or wooden basket filled with leaves and nuts.

Save the major harvest decorations for the table. Start with a solid tablecloth as the base. Dark rich colors such as green, rust, gold, and maroon work best. Your table decorations can include the dishes and napkins, if you have items with earth tone or harvest colors. As an alternative to the standard pumpkin centerpiece, you could make an arrangement using red and yellow mums, painted pinecones, or Indian corn. A cornucopia with fruit and nuts cascading from it would also be nice choice.

Remember, whether you are decorating the inside or outside of your home, harvest decorations consist of items other than pumpkins and scarecrows. There are alternatives to the standard decorations. Use what nature provides to enhance your home, and have fun while you plan each display. In fact, make decorating for the harvest season a special family tradition by including everyone in the planning and gathering of your alternative harvest decorations.

Recommended:

To see and purchase items like the harvest wreath and scarecrow decorations above visit the Autumn Gifts & Decor page or simply click on the graphic.