Hello, friends! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, according to me anyway!
Frost reminds us that “nothing gold can stay,” so I’m soaking in and sipping up as much as I can before everything out my window turns silver and white. Today, I’m here to share some of my favorite golden goodies with you as a thank-you for following our family’s homesteading and homeschooling adventures. From our home to yours, we hope you enjoy these holiday warmers, and if you do, please pass them on to another family! Have a blessed Thanksgiving season, dear friends.
Sweet & Spicy Apple Cider
We make this all fall both for flavor and fragrance. It’s so easy, the kids can make it!
Our spicy recipe for a family of five:
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 6 whole cloves
- 1 half gallon unfiltered apple juice or cider (the browner and cloudier the better)
- *optional for extra spice: One whole star anise, a few whole peppercorns, a few whole allspice berries, and a cardamom pod or two!
Our short and sweet directions:
Put all the ingredients into a pot on the stove or crockpot, bring just before a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Strain all the spice out (or the brew will become bitter) and reheat as much as you like. (Pssst! This cider gets better with age after it’s been refrigerated a few days after brewing. Just sayin’!) Cheers!
Thanksgiving Books & Audio Dramas
Our family loves to mark every holiday and special occasion with books and audio dramas. It just makes every day of the year feel festive and cozy to have stories carefully chosen to coincide with whatever we are doing. It’s always a great day when we pull out the Christmas Books, or the Birthday Books, or the I-Have-A-Loose-Tooth Books! Thanksgiving books are few and far between, but we have managed to form a small, treasured collection. We also love listening to Adventures in Odyssey all year long and saving collections of episodes for certain weeks of the year. We hope that some of these titles enrich your family’s month of Thanksgiving!
Our Family’s Favorite Thanksgiving Fiction:
- The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell (this book is our ABSOLUTE FAVORITE and is now back in print!)
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles M. Schulz
- Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson (for little ones)
- Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming (a real treasure!)
- Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin
- Thank You Ma’am, by Langston Hughes (a real treasure!)
Our Family’s Favorite Thanksgiving History picture books:
- A Pioneer Thanksgiving by Barbara Greenwood
- Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness (a charming, delightful, illustrated history of the pilgrims for young children)
- The New Americans by Betsy Maestro (for a wonderfully-illustrated history of colonial times for older kids!)
- Squanto’s Journey by Joseph Bruchac (the Thanksgiving story with beautiful artwork by Greg Shed)
Thanksgiving & Gratitude Themed Adventures in Odyssey episodes and audiobooks:
- #49 Thank You, God
- #80 A Prisoner for Christ
- #132 Thanksgiving at Home
- #173 A Thanksgiving Carol
- #225 Count It All Joy
- #343 The Pretty Good Samaritan
- #383 B-TV Thanksgiving
- #399 Bernard and Job
- #411 In All Things Give Thanks
- #470 Break a Leg
- #633 License to Deprive
- #675 A Thankstaking Story
- The Imagination Station #6; Problems at Plymouth
24-Days-of-Gratitude Cards for Kids
Gratitude isn’t instinctual. It must be practiced and cultivated. Join us in instilling a true heart of Thanksgiving in our families with our free, printable cards here:
Instructions: Print onto cardstock, cut out, then let your kid(s) draw a card each day, or select and order specific cards to fit what you have on the schedule!
Cook your bird and feed some too!
Legend tells us that the Native Americans taught the pilgrims to not only plant corn, but pop it as well! I hope that this is true because what a beautiful image that is; the Native Americans squatting around an open fire, showing what magic comes when a handful of golden kernels are dropped into sizzling oil! Can’t you just imagine the look on the pilgrims’ faces when the first white puff popped out of the pan?
To remember the Native Americans this Thanksgiving and also celebrate bird day, join our family in making these wild bird treats to add some feathered, feast-day color outside the dining room window!
Early-Bird, Thanksgiving Dinner Skill School
Let’s cook up a feast of gratitude with our kids! Check out our kid-friendly, turkey-day cooking tutorials here:
Intro: Cookin’ up Gobble-Gobble-Grub with Kids in the Kitchen!
Day #1: Fabulous, Easy Herb-Butter-Turkey-Rub & Bread-Spread
Day #2: Crazy-Simple Cranberry Sauce + Vegan Cashew “Cheese” & Chive Dip!
Day #3: Make-Ahead Pumpkin Pie Filling & Freezer Crust
Day #4: Prep-Ahead, Wild & Rustic Sourdough Stuffing from Scratch
Day #5: Spuds with Buds + Maple-Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts with Roasted Pecans
Hey, good lookin’! Whatcha got cookin’?
If you’re looking for something funky to listen to while you’re cooking up that grub, here’s our fun Turkey & Tunes Playlist!
Sing a Hymn of Grateful Praise
There is nothing quite like starting the Thanksgiving feast with a few hymns of gratitude. Below is a file of our family’s favorites, ready to print and display at your table!
Five Kernels of Corn Tradition
Here’s an oldie but a goodie our family recommends for your Thanksgiving table. The pilgrims placed five kernels of corn on each plate at their feast in remembrance of the days when their food rations had been limited to just that: five corn kernels. Growing up, we added to this tradition the sharing of five things each of us were grateful for that year, and last year we revived the tradition with our own kids!
Sample Script: “Look at this feast we are about to eat! The table is overflowing. Can you imagine if instead of all these delicious dishes, all each of us had to eat were the five kernels of corn on our plates? Well, the pilgrims actually experienced days before the first Thanksgiving feast where their food rations, or what they were allotted to eat each day, were just five corn kernels, for the entire day! Don’t worry, you don’t have to eat these kernels of hard corn to remember the pilgrims. Instead, let’s each say five things we are thankful for as we place our corn kernels into this cup/bowl.”
Gobblegories Game
I’ve got a little something to put on your Thanksgiving table, no chopping, whisking, or mashing required! I’m a big fan of the game Scattergories, so I whipped up this quick Thanksgiving-table version for a festive twist! Print for free here: Gobblegories Game
“Lord of all, to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise!”
Thank you for reading and following!
Love, Candace Arden
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