Blessed Thanksgiving

In our fast-paced techno-world it takes effort to slow down and appreciate our blessings - including the very technology we depend upon. Declare this Thanksgiving a techno-free day (after you read this article of course) and start some traditions beyond the feast.

A techno-free day means no use of television, DVDs, computers, video games, cell phones and music/video players.

Don’t take photos during the Thanksgiving dinner. Designate one photographer to take “official” photos to share with everyone the next day. Instead of a group photo, take individual photos that can be used on decorations later.

During Thanksgiving dinner each person can share which techno-tool they miss the most and why. Older family members can each talk about one old tech tool they remember, such as black and white TV, 8-track tapes or wind-up telephones. Hide a gift card for a technology store or some music downloads under one of the seats to find at the end of the meal.

Some alternative techno-free post-meal activities include board games, party games, and picnic games. If you’re having a large family reunion, turn it into an olympic games of sorts with competition according to teams or families, and multiple games in each category. Each team member participates in one game in each category. Winners get different colored construction paper turkey feathers for first, second or third place in each game. The family with the most feathers at the end of the day gets to take home the best leftovers.

If you don’t have extended family with you for Thanksgiving, you can cut and decorate construction paper turkey feathers or index cards as Christmas ornaments. Make them big enough so that people can write on the back. Mail one to each extended family member. Ask them to write their names and something they are thankful for on the back and return the ornament card or feather to you. In a couple weeks you should be able to post all of the thanks on a refrigerator, bulletin board or wall, string them across a fireplace mantle, or hang them on your Christmas tree.

Remember the families of soldiers who are deployed overseas because they are sacrificing their Thanksgiving holiday to serve your country. Make a poster to give to a local military family. Title it “We’re thankful for you and your soldier.” Decorate it with well-wishes and encouraging messages, as well as holiday colors and designs. You may want to include a photo of your family and say that you are thankful for the freedoms soldiers protect.

Make Thanksgiving or Christmas decorations as a family from recycled glass and mirror. Before Thanksgiving ask a local glass shop if they have pieces of leftover glass and mirror to recycle. They can even custom-cut large pieces for you. Thick mirror and glass can be cut into simple shapes with rounded corners and edges for ornaments. Use paint or glitter glue to decorate with symbols, characters, names or scenes. You could even write events, things or people you are thankful for.

Get ready for Christmas with simple glass decorations. Round mirror can be placed under candle jars or candlestick holders to reflect the light. You can recycle old picture frames too. Have a piece of mirror cut to size and attach it to the frame with glue. You paint the frame a holiday color and decorate the mirror first.

Most importantly, tell the people who are most important to you that you are thankful for them. On techno-free Thanksgiving, you may need to write a note. Count your blessings every day, in every way.

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The spirit of Thanksgiving touches upon historical facts, but focuses on giving thanks for an abundant life and promoting peace and cultural diversity. The following fun classroom decoration ideas for Thanksgiving provide thoughtful ways of bringing the true spirit of Thanksgiving into the classroom.

Words of Thanksgiving

Encourage your students to illustrate a Thanksgiving scene of their choosing. Then, have them write words, poetry, a short story or a thank you note that reflects feelings of gratitude. These can be very simple or quite complex, depending on the ages of your students. Then, hang these colorful expressions of thankfulness around the classroom and on the windows.

Pumpkin Patch Bulletin Board

A creative idea for a bulletin board set is to make the bulletin board into a mini pumpkin patch. Using construction paper, invite your students to create various sizes of bright orange pumpkins and green leaves and vines. Arrange the pumpkins all over the bulletin board and then use the green vines to connect them all, illustrating the idea that the people of the earth are truly one people. Green vines can be used to create the bulletin board border as well.

Mr. Turkey Bulletin Board

The turkey is our national symbol for the Thanksgiving celebration. Construct a giant turkey collage with your children using torn pieces of construction paper in fall colors. Attach it to the bulletin board and then use a leaf garland or words as the bulletin board border. The children will enjoy the process of creating a collage and watching the turkey take shape. Invite them to make a smaller version to take home.

Creating turkey themed Thanksgiving classroom decorations with your students is an opportune time to teach them about gratitude, not just for people, but for the plants and animals that help them grow up strong and healthy as well.

Decorations of Peace

Because the celebration of Thanksgiving is also symbolically a celebration of cultural diversity, it is also educational and fun to create classroom decorations with a theme of world peace. Simple symbols from around the world that denote peace, diversity, love, and friendship can be easily found online and recreated using classroom materials. Hang these around the room interspersed with students’ expressions of Thanksgiving.

Get Crafty

Pilgrim hats and traced hand turkeys are a fun standby for young children. Go a step further and have the children make turkeys out of colorful tissue paper that can decorate classroom windows and let light shine through them.

Bountiful Baskets

Like a mini cornucopia, get a few baskets and have the children fill them with tissue paper leaves, construction paper leaves, and small clay acorns, as well as adding a few natural items. Then, place the baskets around the room as classroom décor. Baskets are inexpensive and abundant at your local thrift stores.

These fun Thanksgiving classroom decoration ideas are simple and fulfilling, giving attention to the holiday and providing moments for your students to focus on the virtues of gratitude, diversity and peace. Take full advantage of this special time of year by choosing dynamic bulletin board sets and classroom decorations that are beautiful and inspiring.

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Over many years the delicious turkeys have always been the start of many tables during Thanksgiving. Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving instead of roasted pork or beef? We can serve other food during Thanksgiving but Turkey still remains as the favorite thing to have to celebrate the event. It is still the most famous symbol for commemorating the day when the Pilgrims in the sixteenth century first had their successful harvest. So, why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving some folklore about Thanksgiving celebrations centuries ago can give us the answers?

1. The first possible answer to the question why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving is the fact that during feasts in many American Indian communities centuries ago, they usually had chicken or beef. This was the first recognized celebration of the Thanksgiving Day. William Bradford wrote about the history of the plantation in Plymouth and stated that there were feasts held because of their good harvest. They cooked their fowl and feast on it.

2. The second possible answer to the question why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving could be because of the famous Benjamin Franklin story. Benjamin Franklin believed that turkeys should be the national symbol of America instead of the eagle. He said that turkeys are respectable birds and that there are many turkeys in the northern American region that’s why he thinks it should be the American symbol. A lot of people did not agree with him so it did not become the national symbol of United States. It is true that turkeys abound in America that’s why many people also like cooking it for special occasions.

3. The third possible answer to the question why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving may be because of an old story about Queen Elizabeth of England. In the sixteenth century a Spanish ship was going to attack England but on a surprising turn it sunk in the sea. Queen Elizabeth was so happy that this happened so she commanded her servants to cook goose. The American pilgrims were inspired by this story so they chose to cook turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving. However this story may be the least accurate among the three stories.

Turkeys are surely centerpieces on any Thanksgiving feast even if people can’t really tell the accurate answer to the question why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Many people like to cook it roasted and glazed with sauce.

Visit these sites if you want more information about why we eat turkey on thanksgiving and sizes or why do we celebrate thanksgiving in particular.

When was the last time you give thanks either to God, love ones, relatives, friends and to fellowmen? Well giving thanks to God is a must because He created us, and in every moment because He has been caring and providing us with all our daily physical needs. We will never sustained life in this earth even for a single minute without his loving care and divine protection. But to our fellow human beings, giving thanks is dependent on the person’s upbringing, practice and culture. Then, what is generally and socially accepted standards of giving thanks? Well the most common, basic and generally accepted practice is when you receive a favor, a help or possibly a recipient of the benefits from other person. Thanksgiving may be expressive and demonstrative where you will see concrete actions and tangible things and another manner is the passive way of just being silent and giving perhaps a smile.

Today many people in the world are not only giving thanks individually but in groups, corporate settings or government units. And to mention one of the many cities which is celebrating thanksgiving is the City of Chicago and they are commemorating it as an annual affair called the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade and for this year it kicks off on November 26, 2009. A new development is the renaming of the affair to McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which has been celebrated for over 70 years and this is presented by the Chicago Festival Association (CFA). This is highlighted with a 3-hour street parade in downtown Chicago attended by over 100 participating “units”. This also features giant tethered helium balloons, local celebrities, marching bands, dancers, floats, horses, drill teams, circus performers and many more and upon going home the celebrants traditionally feasted on roasted turkey. The event is telecast live locally on WGN-TV and nationally on WGN America and the live spectators of the event are estimated to reach 400,000. This is really an exciting event to watch personally and people from around the globe who want to witness the event can easily come and avail of the Chicago cheap flights promotional offering.

The original intention of the parade was to boost the morale of the people and to help them feel better during the US great depression. In 1934 during this period many leaders in Chicago were disheartened; thus, triggering them to look for ways to uplift the economy and the public spirit as well. One of the leaders, Walter Gregory, President of Chicago’s State Street Council, suggested a plan of a Christmas parade to Chicago Mayor Edward Kelly with the expectation of lifting up the perceptions and feelings of the general public. The mayor approved and in December 7, 1934 the first Chicago’s Christmas Parade was held on the State Street. Many of the leaders and some residents considered it not as a parade but rather as a caravan. With much optimism of the leaders the event really resulted to the desired growth of the economy and for the first time since 1927 Chicago experienced the biggest buying holiday period.

There were considerable changes that the organization has made since the time they started and in 2002, the Chicago Festival Association (CFA) replaced the format of the parade from a Christmas Parade to Thanksgiving parade that it is today. A lot of people were surprised because in a few years time the number of spectators on the streets has increased tremendously. In addition the number of participating cities has swelled from a handful to a majority in just two years time. Finally since 2006 the Chicago Festival Association has partnered with McDonald’s as the parade sponsor. In 2007, another innovation was made by CFA wherein they invited pop rock group Plain White T’s to perform in the parade for free. In 2008 the parade celebrated its 75th anniversary which was broadcast live nationwide for 3 hours by WGN and WGN America and the first for Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade. There were leading local companies which participated in the event such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey and generally the event was considered as successful.

The spectacular Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade has becoming popular not only in Chicago and Illinois but even to the whole American populace. This is evident by the participation of the local residents and reception and interest of the people from outside Chicago. For people who may be interested to come and witness the event and perhaps may be hindered by finances, you need not to worry because there is still a way of overcoming it. There is a great package deal which makes your visit to the city on the Thanksgiving Day Parade a success through the Chicago cheap flights promotional offering and this is available from your travel agents.

Chicago cheap flights are a great way to start your vacation to Chicago. Vacations to Chicago can be in anyone’s budget. Make sure to book your cheap flights to Chicago and enjoy the scenery and variety.

Did you know that almost 30% of engaged couples choose the fall months as their wedding date? There must be something in the air, or in the lovely colors associated with fall which makes it a popular season for weddings.

Now, if you’re among the couples who choose to get married during this season, you should make sure that the colors of the season are incorporated in your fall wedding decoration.

Fall Wedding Decoration: A Quick Look at the Colors & Decors to Use

When you think of the fall season, the first thing that usually comes to mind are the lovely colors of the falling leaves. Rich yellows, oranges, gold, copper, peach and brown are the hues which mimic the natural colors of the season.

Since they’re all warm, rich and inviting - why not use all of these colors for your wedding? What you can do is select one accent color that will serve as your main color scheme, but all the other hues will blend to create a warm and cozy atmosphere during your wedding ceremony and reception.

For a unique touch, you can take your pick from metallic and jewel tones as the accent color, or turn it into your main wedding color scheme.

Now, aside from thinking about the colors that you will use, make sure to also incorporate the season’s blooms, fruits and other natural elements to make for a truly unique fall wedding decoration.

The flowers that you can use include roses, gardenias, mums, dahlias and zinnias. A cluster or grapevines and pumpkins are the ‘in’ fruits to use for fall wedding decorations. Finally, don’t forget the colorful fall leaves, maple leaves and the rich brown natural pine cones and cornstalks.

All of these elements can be combined when decorating the wedding ceremony entrance, aisles, pews, altar - and the wedding reception tables, entrance and walkways.

Fall Wedding Decoration Tips & Ideas

Here are a few key fall wedding decoration that you should keep in mind when decorating:

1. If you’re at a loss where to start with your fall wedding decoration scheme, start with the wedding dress that you have chosen. Does the gown have a vintage or classic feel to it? Or did you choose a minimalist gown which hardly has any embellishments?

Depending on the gown that you will wear, you can create your fall wedding decoration in such a way that the décor will home in on the style of your dress.

2. Fall is the time for harvest, and if you are holding an outdoor wedding ceremony and reception, everything should look bountiful! For your table centerpieces, you can create a small pine cone tree which is decorated with oranges, maple leaves and crimson berries. Place them on every dinner reception table and your guests would surely ooh and ahh over the effort that has gone into your fall wedding decoration!

3. It’s a must not to forge the season’s loveliest blooms, but fruits can blend in the occasion just as well. Pumpkins, clusters of grapevines, pomegranate, every imaginable type of berries that you can get, oranges, apples and pears - all of these lovely fruits can be used as an inspiration for your fall wedding decoration theme.

You can either use the real thing to create a ‘bountiful harvest’ theme. Or, you can use flower-shaped floating candles and use them on your table centerpieces. You can even create a magnificent wreath which combines all of the fall elements together and hang it by the table or gazebo where the bride and groom will sit down to entertain their guests.

With all these fall wedding decoration tips and ideas, you will surely have an unforgettable wedding ceremony and reception that will not just look great on your wedding album, but give you fond memories to remember for the rest of your life as well.

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