Thanksgiving Tradition

I come from a large family that Loves tradition and I hope to pass that on to my boys. The Holidays bring so much joy, especially when you have special family traditions to look forward to. Every year we try our best to make it to both families houses for dinner, the more kids we have the more difficult it seems to get, but we've got a good record so far.

Every year on Thanksgiving we put everyone's names in a bowl and draw names for our Christmas Secret Santa gift exchange. The secret fun to this family tradition: When all the kids go into the other room and switch names so they buy a gift for who they want to and get to choose who picks their gift. Terrible I know, but kids will be kids, shhhh don't tell Mom.

Crafts and creativity have always been a very important part of the holidays. A tradition my sister and I started when we were younger was making a Thanksgiving pinata. Any excuse to get a bunch of candy.... So we would make our own pinata from balloons covered in paper and glue and do our best to make it resemble a turkey. I looked forward to that turkey so much more than the one in the oven :) This is a great tradition if you have a lot of kids in your family. The making of the bird is fun and the breaking .... well, who doesn't love a pinata?

Another craft tradition would be the hand print turkeys and the potato turkeys, you can't celebrate Thanksgiving without them :)

And then there's Football. I am not a sports person, I don't follow any of them at all. But you better believe the game is on and if you even THINK about changing the channel.... watch out!

Thanksgiving is also that time of year when you get all your favorite dishes. Everyone brings that dish they are famous for .... or a new one if they're new to the adult potluck tradition. Grandma's green marshmallow salad, Mom's cheesy potatoes (OMG!)! I remember one of my first years joining this tradition my Mom gave me the easy task of bringing the green bean casserole. Easy right? Everyone knows the traditional green bean casserole, how hard could it be? Well just be sure you use FRIED onions and not DRIED onions in your casserole, lol. Big difference..... I shall never live it down. Now Mike and I are famous for something much more tasty, Chocolate covered cheesecake bites. Homemade (or store bought when we're busy) cheesecake made into little bites, dipped in yummy chocolate and dipped in crushed graham crackers or my favorite, Heath toffee bits. Take that green bean casserole.

I hope to pass all of these traditions to my boys and come up with some new ones along the way!

What is your favorite Holiday tradition?

Special thank you to Twittermoms and Target for this fun blogging opportunity!

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