Thanksgiving: Intentional Living

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Thanksgiving has come and gone! I’ve literally been trying to get this post out all week. With my due date also around the corner the holiday’s are about the easy and practical. Getting dinner on the table for my family this year is less about tradition and more about saving room to savor the time spent together. Which it should always be. A few weeks ago I skimmed through my little black book of pinterest recipe’s and put together a simple menu plan for Thanksgiving. While I had to talk my myself out of not doing too much plenty of times, I think I came out with the simplest menu and plans for my family. I also wanted to think of some fun things to do for us since we will be enjoying a quiet evening at home. My kids loved the minute to win it that we did for Valentine’s day last year so I was thinking I’d put together some silly games for the evening. Aside from that, Thanksgiving was very stress-less for me and my guys. The key here to me pulling this off and coming out under stressed physically was planning ahead to make ahead. My husband and I always plan to be intentional with our children when we have a day off so most of my meals options were prepped Wednesday to spare more time together. I got up early with my hubby and cooked everything that could be the day ahead and come that day, my turkey was done at 9 am. I want to add that while I was prepping my food yesterday, I could not resist licking the spoons. All these recipe’s were delicious! So here is what was on our menu. 1 Crock pot turkey breast Lightened up sweet potato casserole Pioneer Woman Mac and Cheese Pioneer Woman creamed spinach Stuffing Cranberry sauce- my recipe is a 12oz bag of cranberries, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tsp each of vanilla and orange extract. Cook down until cranberries burst. The longer you cook, the more gel like it will become. Buttermilk cornbread Pumpkin Pie

Here is what our table looked like. The kids colored their place mats while they were waiting for food to be warmed and then we played bingo while we ate.

Before we ate we played some minute-to-win-it games which were so fun.

I made up a few: Turkey gobbler- Dab a dot of Vaseline on your nose and move 10 cotton balls from one plate to another using only your nose. Turkey on the Run- Keep 3 balloons in the air for 1 minute without them hitting the ground. Hunting for turkey- Practice your hunting skills by plucking as many rubber bands into a basket as you can in 1 minute Penny Pilgrim stack- Stack as many penny’s as you can in 1 minute. (we did 25 for my little guys..I won!) Turkey blow- Blow your “turkey” (balloon) across the road (room) safely through a straw in one minute