by Cristina Mohr

Created on: October 31, 2008

Is Thanksgiving no fun for you because you spend it in a lonesome kitchen? Perhaps Thanksgiving is a boring holiday for your family because you can't seem to figure out what to entertain with.

Why not turn the holiday of gratitude into a day of thankfulness with harmonious attitude?! I have a few helpful ideas to make this coming Thanksgiving Day a feast of memories. With a bit of planning and pre-holiday preparing, you'll be spending more of your next Thanksgiving in the living room with the rest of the family feeling stress free and having lots of fun!

Firstly, throw caution to the wind! Let your little ones get in on the action, even if it means that there will be a little more mess. The trick is to recruit them to cleaning up without them realizing what you're doing. Also, kids tend to be bored during the Thanksgiving Day. Bringing them in on the festivities gives them something to do and even helps them to appreciate what you do in the kitchen. I can even almost guarantee you'll have plenty of laughs in the kitchen with your kids while you're at it!

Start a few weeks early by collecting the grocery ads and planning your menu based on what's on sale in combination with what you may have coupons for. It's always best to pick up your turkey a few weeks prior to Thanksgiving and storing it in your freezer because the closer you get to Thanksgiving, usually the more expensive the bird is. Be resourceful when trying to get the lowest prices possible on your Thanksgiving meal items. Also, there's no shame in making certain things easier for yourself by purchasing already made dips, gravy, bagged salad, pre-cut veggies and canned crescent rolls. Grab the coupon booklets in the Sunday paper and check online; go to particular brand websites, www.couponmom.com is a great source.

Not only do you want to plan your meal in advance, you might want to plan on some festive crafts that will keep your little ones buy for the day while giving your dinner table an extra special flare. Perhaps pick up some felt or foam fabric/paper in oranges, browns and yellows, fall leaves in a bag or on vines, maybe a fun kin, a white or yellow paper table clothe, markers and/or crayons and safety scissors. You might want to check out some simple and fun Thanksgiving crafts on the Martha Stewart Website and grab the items needed for those templates. If you happen to have a kitchen with minimal counter space, consider picking up a fold away table you can use as an island for the holidays.

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