DIY Life

Thanksgiving games are a ritual for some families. My family is immensely sedentary, especially when it comes to the annual tryptophan coma that we so love to indulge in. Yet this year, I'm planning to spice things up with a few exciting games for the whole family, courtesy of our friends at Holidash!:

1. Name That Turkey Tune
Make your guests sing for their supper with this family-friendly game. Each player takes turns singing their favorite songs by replacing the lyrics with the word 'GOBBLE.' The first player to correctly identify the tune is the new 'gobbler' and the fun continues.

2. Thanksgiving Bingo
If you can't pull your family away from the tube, why not make them work while they watch? Family Fun has a few printable bingo cards for Thanksgiving Day's TV watching, so hand out a few sheets and pencils and go to town. Loser has dish duty!

3. Apple Paring Game
In case you didn't quite get enough dessert, bring in the family for a fun, reward-driven game. Each player gets an apple and a peeler or knife (for adults) and has sixty seconds to peel the longest apple strip they can muster. Winner gets to take a fresh-baked apple pie home for Black Friday!

4. Toilet Paper Thanks
Pass around a roll of toilet paper to the entire room and ask them to tear as many sheets off as they'd like (but don't tell them why they're doing so!). After every player has chosen their desired number of sheets, announce that they have to share one thing they're thankful for... per sheet they ripped from the roll. Those greedy folk won't know what hit them!

With a few of these easy-to-implement games, your family will be so energized they won't even need their annual turkey nap!

You probably spent Thanksgiving with your family and friends. If you were lucky enough to find time between cooking and serving, you enjoyed some meaningful conversation and reflected on how grateful you are to have such a wonderful group to gather with. Monday morning rolls around and the people you are closest to have driven back to their houses and you all start another regular week with the people you share less significant relationships with.

You'll find yourself standing in line tomorrow morning at the coffee shop, riding the elevator to your office, getting on with your day, lingering in the lunch room, chatting about work, the weather and how busy the malls are. You might start to miss the evocative conversations you had with close friends and family over the weekend. This doesn't have to stop when you get back to the daily grind. You can have meaningful interactions anywhere.

Your family is coming over for Thanksgiving. Your brother is bringing his girlfriend and the neighbors that first declined your invitation are now going to make it. The more the merrier, right? You're happy to have the extra people, but visions of grandma balancing a plate of turkey on her lap while sitting on the couch, or sending your 15 year -old cousin to the kid's table are not your idea of a relaxed holiday meal.

If you have 1 hour and $40, Tim Carter will show you how to build a big dining room table. If you have no table at all, you'll need two empty cable reels and a large piece of plywood. You'll find the cable reels at an electrical part distribution center. They should have a bunch of them out behind the warehouse.

For those of you who rarely dress up, tie season is upon us. It will kick off with Thanksgiving dinner, then various formal Christmas events and by New Years eve you will have worn more ties in the past month than you will the rest of the year. If you're out of practice, refreshing yourself on how to tie a tie and the best occasions for each knot will help you through the holidays.

You'll want to choose a knot based which shirt you're pairing your tie with. The half-windsor for example is best with straight ties on thin fabrics. Once you know which knot you're going to tackle, you'll need instructions. These instructions offer full step-by-step instructions with accompanying diagrams.

When the festivities are over and you settle back into your jeans and t-shirt uniform, make sure that you clean and store your ties properly for the next occasion. Always untie the knot before hanging it up on a tie rack. Make sure that you store your ties away from color-fading light. If you need to remove wrinkles from a tie, try rolling it up and leaving it for a few days.

Instead of dreading the formal Christmas party, treat yourself to a new tie (remember to check what dress she's wearing first so you complement it) and strut your stuff!

Most of our Thanksgiving traditions are the ones we remember from our childhoods. The history in recreating rituals and family recipes gives us a connection to our roots and reminds us of all we have to be thankful for. As our family grows, I am more and more interested in adding some new traditions, ones that begin with our generation and will be passed on by our children and their children.

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks. Yes, I suppose that is stating the obvious. Still, it is all too easy get lost in the festivities. It's hard enough to stay focused through decorating, preparing, and entertaining, then add football and Thanksgiving takes on a whole new meaning. After the break, I'll share the first 2 traditions that are all about giving thanks. Maybe you'd like to try adding some of them this holiday.

Now that the holidays are upon us, it's time to start making our lists and checking them twice. Lists are important, as they help you stick to what you need. When you have a list, you'll always remember what you need, and that's exactly why I am always carrying stray pieces of paper with me. Having too many of them ends up being a cluttered mess, though.

Derek and Lauren on Design*Sponge help us make pocket notebooks to keep all our stray lists in one place, thus effectively ending that cluttered paper mess. Using three pieces of heavyweight paper, eighteen small pieces of scrap paper, and one piece of cardstock, you can construct three notebooks, effectively having all your lists handy in one place.

I think the notebooks are perfect to give as a Christmas gift, or just as a gift for that special someone who never seems to be organized. The pocket notebook can be used for years to come, fits nicely in almost any size purse, and when it wears out, recycle it, and construct a new one.

Want to add a whimsical touch to your Thanksgiving table? Enjoy carving jack-o-lanterns? This idea may be just right for you! Yes, folks, it's the Banana Squash Mayflower: a recreation of the famous vessel and its intrepid Pilgrim passengers, constructed entirely from winter squash and an assortment of other vegetable friends.

This centerpiece has it all -- A) a little humor, B) carving with a sharp knife to satisfy your crafting instincts and impress your friends and family, C) winter root vegetables, which evoke the seasonal and agrarian feel of Thanksgiving, all the while D) paying tribute to American history. I know I'm feeling thankful just thinking about it!

Squash Mayflower-assembly instructions and photos can be found on DIY Network's website. Let me boil it down to the essentials for you.

Step 1: Take a large banana squash and carve out a section in the middle. The squash is your Mayflower. The carved out section is the deck.

What table would be complete without handmade Thanksgiving place mats to wow your guests? Since place mats can be very expensive, you can get the kids involved in making place mats that the guests can take home, if they so choose.

The Holiday Spot has five excellent ideas for making handmade Thanksgiving place mats with your kids. The five ideas are:

A few years ago a friend of mine mentioned that her family had decided to deep fry their Thanksgiving turkey. My first thought was, "Ewww. How gross can you be?" My second thought was, "Well they are from Louisiana, they deep fry just about everything down there."

Although invited, I couldn't attend her family's fried delight but to this day she continues to rave about that deep fried turkey. In the years since then I have heard more mention about this curious manner of turkey preparation. It seems not only is the frying time fairly quick but the turkey meat is rumored to be among some of the most delectably moist pieces you will ever have the pleasure of tasting.

As we prepare for next week's Thanksgiving feast at my house and are tossing around various meal ideas, the deep fried turkey concept is among the top contenders at the moment. From what I have read it sounds intriguing and downright tasty.

Nevertheless, deep frying a turkey requires thoughtful planning and the right utensils. The process for deep frying a turkey is not one to be taken lightly, you are dealing oil heated to 350 degrees. Unless you are a seasoned pro you should follow directions carefully when undertaking this endeavor.

I'm loving this idea for keeping little hands busy on a cold afternoon: make a Hands-and-Feet Turkey decoration. The finished masterpiece can be used to decorate the house for Thanksgiving. Alternatively, it could be a cute dining table adornment for your Thanksgiving feast. Help your children make these every year and you'll have an adorable record of how their hands and tootsies have grown.

I found my instructions on the website, Kaboose. Let's start with tools.

You will need: light card stock or construction paper in autumnal shades like leaf brown, rusty red, pumpkin orange, or forest green. Extra points if you start with white paper and have the kids paint the paper themselves! You'll also need scissors, a stapler, glue, and a pencil or marker pen.

Step one: help your children trace their feet onto the paper. Keep shoes on for this step. Then trace their hand prints. Make one set of two hands on three different colors of paper. Then trace one final hand print on a fourth color of paper.

These autumn themed napkin rings will make the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving table. They look so delicate in their design, but will hold up for many years. You can get the whole family involved in crafting the napkin rings.

Materials

1. Salt
2. Flour
3. Water
4. Rolling pin
5. Cutting board
6. Cookie sheet
   
7. Aluminum foil
8. Golden yellow paint or some other autumn color
9. Fine tipped paintbrush
10. Ribbon in a dark autumn color
11. Leaf button or small leaf stamp
12. Sharp kitchen knife
13. Fake autumn leaves (found in most craft stores)
    
14. Hot glue gun

In the full instructions for making Thanksgiving napkin rings you'll find each step and tips along the way. You can choose ribbon and paint colors that match the rest of your Thanksgiving centerpiece. You could even play around with different silk leaves or flowers. If you're not hosting Thanksgiving this year, make a set of rings for your hostess. She'll appreciate the gift, you'll have fun making them, and the cost is next to nothing.

Turducken , the holiday feast made famous by John Madden, consists of a duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey with flavor and spice ingredients interspersed between the poultry layers. Some people reverse the process and put a chicken breast inside a duck but the concept is still the same. Internet estimates put the emergence of the turducken at about 1985 but I myself believe that those good Cajun folks had been over stuffing their holiday poultry for quite some time before then. Turducken poultry needs to be de-boned, a task you can do yourself, but I believe that job is best accomplished by a food preparation professional. Some of the recipes use just a duck breast and some use a duckling but the finished creation is just as amazing either way. Make sure you have a good meat thermometer on hand and be prepared to invest anywhere from 8 to 16 hours to properly cook the creation. Remember, you would much rather burn your Thanksgiving meal to a crisp than to have just one holiday guest get salmonella poisoning.

I never would have guessed that you can build a barbecue smoker out of a garbage can and hot plate. You can smoke a whole turkey this Thanksgiving and re-use it again at Christmas. Instructables member DEel brings us the steps we need to for build our own garbage can smoker. I've summarized the steps here.

How to make a garbage can smoker

1. Build a grafting support inside the garbage can
2. Add support for a dripping pan
3. Add the hotplate
4. Add a thermometer to the lid
5. Prepare the wood chips
6. Prepare the turkey
7. Smoke it
8. Enjoy!
   

The full instructions have accompanying pictures and important details for each step. You'll learn everything from putting all the pieces together to properly preparing wood chips. Eating out of the garbage never tasted so good! This DIY project will definitely leave your Thanksgiving guests talking.

Cornucopias have been around since the 5th Century BCE. They are often called a "horn of plenty" and represent giving and sharing. The modern cone-shaped basket is filled to overflowing with fruits and vegetables, leaves and straw, and can sit on the table as a centerpiece.

eHow.com has a great article on making a Thanksgiving cornucopia. To make your own cornucopia basket, you can buy a cone shaped basket at a craft store and steam the end to make it bend into the shape of a goat's horn. Gather some colorful Autumn leaves from your yard and place them on a tray. Stuff the basket with straw or other craft filler, place the basket on the tray, and fill the basket with fruits and vegetables such as miniature pumpkins and gourds, small apples and oranges, and Indian corn, allowing these fruits and vegetables to spill out in abundance. In all the cracks and crevices, sprinkle some nuts and hearty berries. Finish your Thanksgiving cornucopia by placing more leaves around your finished item.

I will make a cornucopia this year, following eHow's directions. I have never made one before, so I think it's time to try something new. My table needs a little dressing up, and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, I love to decorate for it, and give thanks for all the blessings in my life.

As we gather to give thanks and enjoy time with family and friends, Thanksgiving tables will take center stage. If you haven't decided what to put in the center of your table, this quick, beautiful and all-natural centerpiece idea may give you some inspiration.

Think about fall's unusual fruits and foliage, and let them inspire you. Search your local farmer's market or grocery store for gourds, small pumpkins and colorful fruits, like figs, clementines, and star fruit, and gather oak leaves and branches. When arranged on tiered cake stands, or in bowls, or carved out pumpkins these harvest-time items make a centerpiece that takes only minutes to create, leaving you with plenty of time to concentrate on the meal.