sponsored post: happy thanksgiving from crayola!

I have been looking forward to this week all month. Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite holidays since in my book not much can top taking a time-out from our busy schedule to spend a whole weekend with family. Oh, and let's not forget the food. 

It is also fun to do some holiday projects with the girls. So far this year we have kept our Thanksgiving crafting pretty simple. I set out a roll of paper with some markers and crayons on the coffee table and the girls have been drawing pictures of things they are thankful for... our family, home, rainbows, flowers, warm beds, trees, kites, crayons, scribbles... :) It has been a good way for us to keep an open discussion with them of all the blessings we enjoy, both big and small, and help us all fill our hearts with gratitude this season.

As a kid I remember being given the job to make place holders and paper turkeys for table decor. It made me feel important like I was contributing to the meal too, and looking back I am sure it was my mother's way of keeping me entertained and out of the kitchen! I am sure my girls will need some entertainment while we are busy prepping food, so I have been taking mental notes of easy Thanksgiving projects they can do mostly unsupervised. Crayola has put together a short Thanksgiving craft inspiration video for those of you looking for some fun ideas too. You can watch it below.

This post is sponsored by Crayola.

Seasons Change......and So Do We

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving revolved about the family being home together.  We didn't go out to eat........we didn't wake up at 3AM to be the 5,346th person in line at the mall......we just stayed home.  We ate too much of the things we knew we wouldn't get the rest of the year, and we just enjoyed the fact that no one had to be anywhere for any reason.  If we were kids, we played outside as long as we could, no matter the weather, until we were called in to eat.  

To me, that's Thanksgiving.

That being said, my Thanksgivings as an adult have changed over the years.  They've gone from --    

• feeling guilty because I lived too far away to get home to see my Mom  to....
• My nuclear family of four, that kind of "fell apart" after my divorce, to myself and my daughters trying to create our own new "normal" Thanksgiving traditions.  

They've grown to include --

• People I met for the first time, because they couldn't get home to their own families, and my daughters brought them home.  My house has been so full of people I'm not sure I even got introduced to them all while they were here because I was so busy cooking;
• Grandchildren experiencing a Thanksgiving meal for the first time in their precious lives;
• To being a guest at some elses house for the day.

And, so......the holidays, like the rest of our lives continue to change.  That is what life is .....some good, some bad, some you can't remember, but always moving in one direction or another.   I think it's important to make your own traditions, but it's also important to recognize life doesn't stay the same for anyone for very long.  I love the phrase "everything has it's season".  Rather than looking at what has changed, and missing what was......

            

Seize it as an opportunity to begin anew, and create new traditions. 

Invite someone over who may not have a family......

Find an opportunity to give back to your community......

    
  Make a list of people you haven't talked to and call them on Thanksgiving......

Donate an entire Thanksgiving meal to a family who can't afford to buy their own......

Just know, that in the universe, your life matters.  Whether it's filled with a house full of people, or it's just you.......you  have a great purpose for being here.  Never doubt that, and focus on what you've been blessed with, not what
you wish you had.  

 
And if you're really brave......get up at 3AM and stand in the cold dark night air with the other gazillions of Black Friday shoppers, just to buy that special something you know you just can't live without! 

(I'll be home asleep!)