If you are like us you are counting down the days until Thanksgiving and Christmas. We love celebrating with our friends and family, but it can also be a bit overwhelming. From making the turkey dinner to getting the Christmas shopping done, we have some ideas that will hopefully take the stress out of the holidays so that you can enjoy it more with your friends and family.
Tackle the Turkey
So many of us grew up enjoying special family recipes when it came to holiday meals. From the turkey to the trimmings and the pumpkin pie, you could taste the love baked into every dish. Now, as an adult, chances are at least some aspect of the holiday meal has become your responsibility. But don’t worry if you weren’t watching every step, Sur La Table can help! They have in-store cooking classes where you can learn how to make traditional holiday dishes or flavorful variations on everyone’s favorites. We’ve done date nights at Sur La Table and learned to make our own pasta, cook chicken under a brick, sear the perfect steak, and even bake a flourless chocolate cake. It’s most delicious way to learn!
Share the Love of the Season
From expressing your gratitude towards others to getting the Christmas cards ready, making handmade cards is a great activity to do with friends or family. As much as we love getting glitter all over the house, we enjoy going to Paper Source for their workshops. You can learn specialty techniques like brush lettering and even create unique decor for your Thanksgiving table. They provide all the supplies and clean up the mess and that leaves us with one less thing to stress about and we can enjoy making cards with girlfriends.
(l to r) Hand Lettering, DIY Thanksgiving Table Decorations, and Handmade Holiday Cards
Karate Chop Your Shopping List
Many people have a tendency to avoid the shopping mall mainly because with little ones they always seem to find the breakable display or an expensive item to touch right after they have had a snack. Thankfully now you can karate chop your shopping list while the kids take a gymnastics or “ninja” training class with G3 Kidsat the mall. Your kids can flip, climb and bounce for up to two hours while you shop, dine or just catch up with friends. The best part is that they will be having fun and you won’t be stressed that they are going to break anything in the store or hear them complain about all the things they want you to buy them.
We recently had our children’s birthday party at G3. We share here why it was such a great location including how their staff got into character and had great activities for both age groups.
Set the Table
Whether you are hosting or need a gift for the hostess, these craft pumpkins are a simple way to spruce up the Thanksgiving table. It is a fun activity to do as a family. You can either make a pumpkin for your table or use it as a gift to give to others to share why you are thankful for them. There are lots of fun variations. Add succulents or flowers on top, paint them, personalize them with your family name and the year. You could even make it an annual tradition for each person to write something they are thankful for and the year. Each year, you will have a little reminder of what each person has been thankful for.
