Thanksgiving Traditions

noodle-making-wannabes...

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the traditions that come along with it. For as long as I can remember, my Grandma would always make homemade noodles & we would have chicken noodle soup as one of the dishes for Thanksgiving on my mom's side. Last year, my sister Bethany & I decided we wanted to learn how to make Grandma's famous Thanksgiving noodles. Let me be frank here, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

Making noodles from scratch is not an easy task! There's so much that goes into it & it ended up being a day-long adventure. Bethany & I were sore the next day from rolling out so much dough, but our hearts were filled to the brim. Even though we may not have Grandma's gentle touch or simple patience, it meant so much to us to be able to be a part of last year's Thanksgiving noodles.

We let Avery join in on the fun this year & all ended up taking a nap instead of playing uno lol.

thankful leaves...

Hi, this is Sara here chiming in for one of MY favorite Thanksgiving traditions! As a mom, it is so important to me to pass on the importance of gratitude to my family. Several years ago, I started the tradition of "thankful leaves" during the month of November. Here is how we do it at our house..

We begin on November 1st and go through the end of November. We simply found a leaf pattern on the internet & traced the leaves onto different colored construction paper. Nothing too fancy! We keep a pile of cut up leaves, a sharpie & the tape right by the door. We chose this door since it is in the dining room & is pretty front & center in our home. We ask every person to write something they are thankful for on a leaf every time they are at our home. So for those of us that live here, thats 30 leaves each! It has been so fun to see what teenagers coming over for a study group or college students stopping in for a visit are thankful for & also to see how creative my own kiddos have to get by the end of the month after doing so many! It is such a good & easy way to for all of us to make sure we take an extra minute & count our blessings!

changing season means changing traditions...

As the seasons change & life continues on, so do our Thanksgiving traditions. Cousins are starting to marry & have babies which brings so much joy! We joke that we're not sure what we did before we had these sweet little ones around. But this means that our Thanksgiving traditions change as well. More families are involved, big-girl & big-boy jobs are taken & it becomes more challenging to find the date that works perfectly with everyone's schedules. While this change makes my heart feel a little bit sad, I am so thankful that I have years & years of wonderful memories to look back on. It brings my heart great joy to dream about creating my own Thanksgiving traditions with my future family & sharing memories from the past.