Find something to be thankful for every day this month. Count family memories as some of your greatest blessings and find ways this month to create a host of memories to add to the family collection. Enjoy some of these wacky holidays below and create unique ones of your own, too. Celebrate, give thanks, and make every day a holiday with the ones you love.
➤ Jellyfish Day — Have fun creating a jellyfish craft to celebrate the day. Give each person a paper plate. Cut off the bottom third of the plate and then cut rounded divots along the straight edge to give it a scalloped appearance. Paint the paper plate using watercolors. Once the paint dries, use hole punchers to punch about a dozen holes along the scalloped edge. Cut yarn into 10-inch strips, enough for two strips per punched hole. Thread the ends of two strips of yarn through one of the punched holes and tie a knot in the back to keep the yarn in place. Fill each hole by tying two pieces of yarn in each hole. Glue craft wiggle eyes in place on the paper plate. Finish the craft creation by punching a hole near the top of the jelly fish. Loop a piece of yarn through the hole in order to hang the craft.
➤ Play Monopoly Day — This celebration seems self-explanatory. Plan to play monopoly together as a family. Pick other board games to play throughout the month, too, and keep a record of the winners of each game night. Play other rounds of monopoly during the month, too. Tally up the score at the end of the month to determine a board game champion.
➤ Cook Something Bold Day — Work in the kitchen together to create this bold recipe. Make this quick and easy stuffed pepper recipe to share at a meal. Prepare one pound of fresh jalepeno peppers or another color of mini peppers by halving them lengthwise and seeding. Brown 1 pound of ground pork sausage. Combine the cooked sausage with one 8-ounce package of softened cream cheese. Stir in 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of sausage mixture into each pepper half. Arrange the stuffed halves in a 9 X 13 inch baking dish. Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until bubbly and lightly browned.
➤ American Frog Day — Play this game outside on a crisp and cool day during the month. Spread out old towels or dishcloths on the grass in the back yard to represent lily pads. Make sure there is one less towel than players for the game. One person begins the game as the “caller” frog. When the caller says, “Hop, Froggy, Hop,” each person, including the caller hops on all fours to a lily pad. Only one frog is allowed on a lily pad. The frog-player without a lily pad becomes the caller for the next round. After a hopping-good time, take a break to read some of these froggy books.: "I Am a Frog" by Rebecca McDonald and James McDonald; "National Geographic Kids Explore My World Frogs" by Marfe Delano; "Frog and Toad Are Friends" by Arnold Lobel; "I Don’t Want to Be a Frog" by Dev Petty; "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Frog" by Lucille Colandro; "The Wide-Mouthed Frog" by Keith Faulkner, and "Ribbit! The Truth About Frogs" by Annette Whipple.
➤ Use Less Stuff Day — Celebrate this one with a spring-cleaning in November kind of day. Pull gently-used clothes from the closet that you can donate to someone in need by way of a church’s clothing closet, Goodwill, Safe Haven women’s shelter, Fostering Bulloch, or another local entity. Clean out the toy closet as well to make donations. Practice not being wasteful with food and art supplies and cleaning products. Practice using less stuff throughout the month, making it a new habit so that you can share with others in the process.
Take in the lingering beauty of autumn this month before the calendar flips to another month. Enjoy fall-colored leaves and fresh-turned farmers’ fields, and football games and bonfires. Make memories with the family and give thanks for many blessings. Search for new ways to create lasting memories and carry on older traditions to make it the most special Thanksgiving month ever.
Julie Lavender loves everything about autumn and is looking forward to making memories with her family this fall. The Statesboro native is the author of "Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime" and "365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories."