Imagine: It’s Thanksgiving Day. People have started arriving. They are hungry. Milling around. You’re busy in the kitchen.

What can you have your grandchildren do that will help you out and keep them busy (and happy) until it’s time to eat?

Why–  have them make place cards! Here are links to some that you can print out ahead of time. Then when your grandchildren arrive, simply have them cut out the place cards, write family members’ names on the cards, and place the cards around the table. That’s doable, isn’t it?  That’s what I thought.

• HGTV has some rather elegant looking ones. (I think these are  my favorite.)
• Here’s a Pilgrim hat place card. (My second favorite.)
• Nice ones (the turkey is cute) and some that would have lots of kid appeal (using a teddy bear).

Using Thanksgiving style place cards adds to the theme of your table setting and decoration.  Makes your table look festive. And keeps grandchildren busy.

That’s a winning combination if you ask me . . .

If you have had your grandchildren make place cards for Thanksgiving, please post a comment and share your ideas!

My kids enjoyed playing twister when they were growing up. Sheesh, I enjoyed it, too.

Which got me thinking.

How could I turn Twister into a Thanksgiving Twister.

This is what I came up with.  I got a bunch of Thanksgiving clip art. I’m going to print some up and tape them over the colored square.  For example, I have a picture of a turkey, pumpkin, pilgrims, and Native American Indians (and a few other pictures).

I’ll print up enough turkeys for all of the green circles, enough pumpkins to go on the yellow ones, enough pilgrims to go on the red circles, and enough Native American Indians to go on the blue ones.

Then, when someone uses the spinner, it would be ‘left hand’ on the ‘turkey.’ Get the idea?

This is what I plan on doing this Thanksgiving.  Do you think my grandchildren that are 3 years old and younger will understand how to play it?  Or should I get their parents to play it???

In case you think this is a fabulous idea (you DO think it is fabulous, don’t you??), here is a PDF file of the pictures that I’m going to be using. Feel free to download it and using it for your Thanksgiving Twister, too.

Looking for some ideas of activities to do on Thanksgiving Day with your grandchildren — and other family members?  Why not make a Thanksgiving tree?

It’s nice that I had a sister, two nieces, and a nephew that was willing to be in this photo that I took of our Thanksgiving tree activity last year.

Years ago, I made and laminated a poster of a bare tree without any leaves. (Because it was laminated, I could re-use it many times for different activities.) A local store had paper punches that we could use for free. This was in the day before Cricut machines. I cut out a bunch of various colors of leaves.

Last year, I had family members take one leaf and write on it the things that they were thankful for. Then, they taped them to the tree. The object was to fill the tree full of leaves (things they were thankful for).

I had a pattern to make the tree.  I would share it with you but I don’t have it any more because that was oh so long ago.

However, you really don’t have to have a pattern or anything fancy.  Just draw a simple tree on a poster board or butcher paper. Cut out leaves and have your grandchildren write on the leaves what they are thankful for. The idea is for them to realize all of the blessings they have, all of the wonderful things in their lives, and be grateful for them (especially their FABULOUS grandmother…).

Let me know if you make a tree and how it turned out!

Remember my Oreo Turkey post? They were a challenge for me to make. They seem to want to fall over all of the time. Placement of the candy corn feathers had something to do with that, so I’ve been told.

Then there was the Edible Pilgrim Hat. Much easier. (You’ll have to scroll down and down past the pictures of the baby quilts that I made to see these lil’ darlin’s.) I think that I’ll make some of these for a Thanksgiving treat this year when the extended family comes over to endure my Thanksgiving cooking.

Well, Grandma Lizzie has some cute turkey favors using gum drops and candy corn. It looks like they might be lots easier to make than the flock of retarded turkeys I made. I think that the secret to successfully making her turkeys is the fact that she uses wafer cookies instead of Oreos. Oreos are much heavier than Nilla Wafers.

This would be a great activity for grandchildren to make while they are waiting to sit down at the table to eat the Thanksgiving meal. They could put the favors on the table beside each place setting. Keep the grand kiddos busy and get table decorations that you don’t have to make yourself.  That’s a win-win situation if you ask me.

Head on over to Grandma Lizzie’s and check them out. Then make some with your grandchildren.  Let me know how they turned out.