Brown Paper Packages and Turkey Thumbprints

I cannot tell you how excited I am that it is almost Thanksgiving. Everyone I run into at the coffee stand or the grocery store has been talking about their search for the ultimate Thanksgiving side dish recipe, and whether they'll be going over the river or through the woods to their annual family gathering. There is definitely a feeling of excitement in the air. The night before Thanksgiving, I always watch Planes, Trains & Automobiles while peeling potatoes. Any year Jen and I are able to be together on Thanksgiving, we get up by 9:00 am to watch every single jaw-dropping, boy band singing, high school marching-band minute of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Yes, we are still 5 years old at heart. One year, we're hoping to make it to the parade in person, but one balloon vacation was enough for 2014.

We won't be able to celebrate with my cousins and their kiddos (age 3 and 5) this year, so I wanted to do something special by mail to get them excited for the upcoming holiday festivities. I have a small collection of holiday books given to me by aunts and uncles and grandparents over the years that I've cherished, and wanted to pass on the tradition. I found a few adorable Thanksgiving books, and made my own Thanksgiving wrapping paper with brown craft paper, stamp ink, and my hand.

Both of these sweet kids are also into crafts. I made up small craft kits with the supplies for two fun projects I found on Pinterest. The first kit was for Leaf Turkeys. We recently had a pretty big wind storm, followed by a freeze, so there weren't any beautiful natural leaves readily available. I chose to go with some fabric leaves and improvised with pipe cleaner legs.

The second craft, meant for the 5 year old, was for Cork Turkey Place Cards.

In my search for turkey crafts, I also saw these adorable thumbprint turkeys on Pinterest and couldn't resist recreating them for my Thanksgiving cards this year.

Jen always recites this to me, and it makes me laugh, so I thought you'd like it too:

"If turkeys thought, they'd run away, a week before Thanksgiving Day, but turkeys can't anticipate, and so there's turkey on my plate." - Jack Prelutsky

Happy Thanksgiving!