My favorite way to keep chaos at a minimum on such a wonderful holiday.
I love holidays. All of them.
I love my kids. All of them.
But all of the holidays mixed with all of the kids can make for anything but love sometimes.
Our family decided that we were going to have Thanksgiving dinner ready by noon this year. I usually prefer later in the afternoon and make cheese and crackers and veggies available for a lunch-ish option, but my married daughter has to juggle two different families, so making dinner early gave us the opportunity to celebrate with them on Thanksgiving as well.
Once I thought about it, I liked the idea of having it a little earlier anyways. More time to rest in the evening, more time to hang out, more time to eat more food… It was sounding pretty good.
But then I had a thought: the problem with Thanksgiving at noon is that the kids are going to want to eat breakfast. They want to eat all the time, every day. I never really stop them, though I do try to corral them and keep them and sort of the same schedule. Sometimes I just run out of breath and energy and they win. However, I cannot have kids in my kitchen eating breakfast and dirtying dishes and making messes when I am trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people. There is nothing happy holidays about that.
So my easy solution to fix that problem for Thanksgiving morning was simple: fill a basket with granola bars, peanut butter crackers, peanuts and fruit… Enough for all the kids to eat for the morning.
The basket gets put on the far side of the kitchen, away from the stove, the sink, and the coffee bar… All essentials in making a Thanksgiving dinner. That is what they are welcome to eat, and that is all they will eat, until their Thanksgiving feast is served at noon.
All of a sudden, my holiday just got way more jolly and bright. I had already planned on making my desserts I had of time the day before, so all I can see is an easy Thanksgiving feast with no kids underfoot, no scolding in the kitchen, and no tantrums from fake dying hunger.
I also went ahead and found a cute printable placement on Pinterest to let them color so they have something else to do besides ask me what is for dinner.
I have the link for the page I found right here if you like.
Everybody wins this holiday. Share with me what you all decide to do to keep your Littles happy and your holidays happy all at the samek time. Y’all are more magical than Santa if you can pull that off.
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.
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