Thanksgiving Traditions

I was recently browsing around twittermoms.com when I ran across a post asking, "What three favorite family Thanksgiving traditions have you passed or will pass on to your children?" and it really started me thinking. So far, we haven't done a great job of passing on Thanksgiving traditions. My excuse is that is has been so busy since the kids were born. Also, my children are fortunate enough to know 3 sets of great-grandparents, which is amazing, but also adds 3 more houses to the holiday itinerary. However, seeing as how I fondly remember the traditions of my childhood, I decided that I'd better get started. So, here are my plans (which I fully expect will change since rarely do my plans work out quite as I expect):

1. Holiday Decorating - As a child we would always begin our holiday decorating on the weekend of Thanksgiving. We weren't much for shopping on Black Friday, but we still celebrated the fact that Christmas is just around the corner by digging out some of our favorite decorations.
2. Being Active - Before having children we would always eat our Turkey, then go outside and play football as a family. It was never a rough and tumble game, but we all got out and enjoyed the fresh air with a bit of friendly competition. While I don't know if we have enough in our immediate family to play football, we will definitely pick up an outdoor activity we can use to celebrate the day.
3. Being Thankful - As corny as it may sound, each year at Thanksgiving dinner we used to tell each other one thing that we are thankful for. While the answers are usually pretty standard - "my family" "good food" etc, it is a great opportunity to take the time to think about all that we have. We have been very blessed and it is important that we all take the time to realize and acknowledge those blessings.

Note: This post was inspired by the above linked post at twitter moms. I'd like to thank twitter moms and Target for making me think about such a great topic.