This Thanksgiving, let’s not just teach our children to be thankful, let’s teach them Who to thank.

1. Crown of Thanks. Cut different shapes and colors of leaves out of colored paper. Write on the leaves what you want to thank God for. Tape on the wall, up around the ceiling. Circle the room with a crown of thanks to the Lord this.

2. Be Thankful Finger Play.

Lord, I have two hands, 10 fingers that can I wiggle
Lord, I’m thankful for jello, yellow jello that I can jiggle

(hold up your hands, wiggle your little finger on your left hand first.
wiggle wiggle – First, I’m thank for_________
Keep your hands up high, wiggle your ring finger next on your left hand
wiggle wiggle – Second I’m thankful for ________
(Keep going with all ten fingers, until you are all the way to your little finger on your right hand.)

Lord, I’m thankful for 10 things, but there’s so many more.
But most of all I’m thankful for Jesus, It’s Him that I adore

3. Thank You Reflection. Keep Post-its in the shape of a turkey or leaf near the bathroom mirror, family members and visitors can write down what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving week and post-it on the bathroom mirror.

4. Thank you List. What we are thankful list, instead of what we want. Do you usually have a ongoing grocery list on your refrigerator, where family members can write down a grocery item that is missing from the cupboards or refrigerator? How about keeping a list of what you are thankful for, this Thanksgiving? Keep a running list of what you are thankful for, that you do have this Thanksgiving.

5. Thankful Cake. On the dessert table this year at Thanksgiving consider including a Thankful Cake. Write on the top of the Thankful Cake in the middle “We are thankful for,,,” Then, write different things that people are thankful for on top of the Thankful Cake, before serving.

6. Thank the Lord Around the World. Thank the Lord in different languages. Write or record thank you in many different languages around the world. Before the Thanksgiving family prayer at the table, you could play the recording, as you thank God for loving the whole world and giving his only begotten son for the world, that whosoever believes in Him, might not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

7. Hymn Sing. Why not continue or start a Thanksgiving tradition of singing together? Sing several hymns or praise songs together before or after your Thanksgiving meal.

8. Thank You Video. You can make a video throughout the morning of Thanksgiving Day, interviewing family members with the question, “What are you most thankful to the Lord for this Thanksgiving?” Show the video before or after Thanksgiving Dinner. Most point and shoot digital cameras come with a video camera function which can serve this purpose well. That the family might know that we are not only thankful this Thanksgiving, but that we know who to thank – To God be the Glory.

Your dinner consists of leftovers taken off everyone else’s plates.

You can change a toddler’s diaper while he is doing cartwheels.

You add baby formula to the mashed potatoes to avoid going to the store for another gallon of milk.

You spend your birthday money on a kit to remove your own ear wax.

You have to get up at 3:00 Am to take a hot bath and actually enjoy talking to the floating plastic penguins your daughter left.

You celebrate finding the last clean diaper like most people celebrate finding a winning lottery ticket.

You aren’t happy when your husband cleans out the car because you’ve now lost everything you own.

You do get a night out at a fine restaurant you still try and order spaghettios with meatballs.

You are happy if someone makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for you.

You once lived on your couch for 24 hours without getting up.

You call your husband, dad, because, well, everyone else in the house does…

Your kids bounce, off the ceilings, instead of off the walls.

Your flip flops are both lefties and you can still chase your child down the driveway in less than 3.5 seconds.

You hear your daughter say, “When I grow up, I want to be a mother, only I’ll think I’ll still comb my hair.”

2. The childbirth coach promised the contractions wouldn’t hurt any more than holding an ice cube in her hand. She’s never been able to take ice in her tea, since then.

3. Rather than playing soothing music in the birthing room, her husband listened to ESPN Classics rerun of the 1987 Super Bowl.

4. The doctor decided to play an additional nine holes and ordered the Pictosin drip turned down to one drip per hour.

5. Her husband took a picture of her facial expressions, during hard labor and used it for their family Christmas letter.

6. The hospital mistakenly delivered a taco supreme with Tabasco sauce, instead of clear broth and ice chips for lunch.

7. The florist tied five dozen helium balloons to the end of the bed, causing it to rise at a 45 degree angle for over an hour.

8. The nurse mistakenly wrote the name of the prescription on the birth certificate — making her the proud mother of a girl named Tylenol 3.

9. Your husband promised the entire delivery room staff a sit down Thanksgiving dinner the day after you arrive home.

10. She overheard her husband in the hallway saying, “I don’t know what the big deal is about labor…I think she’s being overly dramatic…”

2. Mom and dad are doing full-out cannon ball dives into the community swimming pool — that is, until they ask you to leave.

3. Bedtime is now 7:30 sharp — in the morning.

4. You roasted s’mores with the kids over an open fire last night — that is after the marshmallow catches fire on your stovetop.

5. You make truckloads of lemonade for dinner — using the water from the fire hydrant.

6. You call your friends and tell them you’re calling from seaside at Martha’s “Grape” Vineyard — actually you’re sitting in a 2 foot plastic wading pool, after your son smears grape jelly all over his face.

7. You contact Carnival Cruise Line on-line and ask if they will sell your family one way tickets.

8. You tell your husband you’re having “shrimp on the barbie” for supper — actually its your way of telling your husband that your five-year-old daughter left her favorite doll on the gas grille.

9. You call your favorite baby-sitter and insist tonight they read a story and make macaroni and cheese — for you.

10. Mom finally takes a nap — but doesn’t notice, under the sprinkler.

…if you peel your kids’ grapes.
…if you do your kids’ laundry, even before they wear their clean clothes.
…if you are way more interested in planning your eight-year-old’s birthday party, than your eight-year-old is.
…if you have to limit yourself to only vacuuming 30x a day.
…if you dilute your kids’ soda pop, worried the bubbles will frighten them.
…if you bake totally organic bread, with absolutely no crust.
…if you have each kid, each day, in over 500 activities.
…if you start to teach your daughter classical french, and the doctor asks if you mind waiting, until he cuts the umbilical cord.
…if you lay awake sobbing that your four-year-old won’t get into Harvard, because they lost the coloring contest at Wendy’s Restaurant.
…if you think your two-year-old doesn’t have potential to be an Olympic ice skater, because they don’t twirl properly, in the balls at MacDonalds.
…if you peel your kids’ hot dogs.
…if you urge your kid to run for president and the contractions are still five minutes apart.
…if you hire an oil painter to do a portrait, of your baby’s ultrasound.

• to talk out their issues and problems, instead of shoving, pushing, and tackling out there on the field.
• to stop whispering out there in huddles, it makes the other team feel bad to be talking about them.
• that the real Super Bowl is the white big bowl in the bathroom.
• that the point of wearing a uniform is to help you act more polite and respectful in school. So, why do these men put on uniforms, then start ramming each other and doing crazy dances in the end zone to celebrate it? No one should clap for them when they do either.
• that those men in the black and white striped shirts, carrying a whistle should use their yellow handkerchiefs and not throw them down on the field. And why use yellow ones? they don’t match anyone’s outfit.
• that those men floating up there in that big Goodyear helium balloon should come down rig ht now before it pops and someone gets hurt. Besides, they are cheating — hanging up there trying to see the game without having to buy a ticket. Shame on them.
• that it’s really not nice to pour a huge bucket of Gatorade on that man with the clipboard, standing on the sidelines at the end of the game. That’s probably his homework he’s been working on the entire game. Now it’s all wet and the teacher will make him stay after school and do it all over again.
• that coaches should know when you call a “time out” you should make all the players go over and sit in the corner for 30 minutes, and think about what they have done wrong. And you don’t let them back on the field, until they say they’re sorry. They usually let them run back on the field in just two minutes — it only encourages bad behavior.
• that NFL teams don’t need a coach. What they really need is a MFL super mom, who won’t give the guys supper, if they come in with their uniforms all dirty one more time.

9. The Midwife takes off her watch and instead hangs up a lunar calendar.

8. The RN sits down and begins reading her hard bound copy of War and Peace.

7. The OB doctor looks at his watch and decides he can get in a round of golf – in Bermuda.

6. The chaplain says he’s overjoyed he can bless the newborn just a few days before he retires – he’s only 28.

5. The phlebotomist smiles and says, “This will be fun – a Christmas baby!” and heads off to a Fourth of July parade.

4. You husband produces a dozen roses in the delivery room and says sweetly, “And you thought I would forget our tenth anniversary…” That’s when you remember you were admitted on your 8th anniversary.

3. Your little boy was studying for his weekly spelling test when you left home in labor – he now text messages you to say he’s been accepted to College.

2. The dietician thanks you that now she’ll be able to use all of her season tickets to the opera.

1. The monitor tells you your contractions are now as far apart as the summer Olympics.

photo credit: Torsten Mangner

1. 1. Her presidential cabinet will consist of experts in finding shoes that fit (Department of the Insole), making microwave dinners taste homemade (Department of Homeland Mac and Cheese), and getting ketchup stains out of white clothes (Department of Clorox Security).
2. World leaders will be intimidated by her multitasking ability to negotiate a treaty and do her child’s math simultaneously.
3. All presidential limos will be replaced with bullet-proof minivans that come with a DVD player in the back seat.
4. Everyone in the nation will receive a “McDonalds Happy Meal” tax credit (during bad economic times an additional stimulus package will consist of a one Filet of Fish & McFlurry per family).
5. Her first 100 days in office will focus on making sure there are no dangerous electrical outlets in the West Wing.
6. The presidential seal will be replaced with the Gerber baby.
7. Her first choice for Vice Presi dent will be a reliable babysitter.
8. She would appoint “pro-early bedtime” Supreme Court Justices.
9. The leaders of the G-7 nations will be forced to play soccer on the front lawn of the White House during summits (two yellow cards and you get sent home).
10. The national anthem will be sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks.

photo credit: Medmoiselle T