Games for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Every other year we host Thanksgiving at our home.  We eat, play games and laughing until our cheeks hurt.  Some of the games we play are active and others are more sedentary. Some involve skill and others just luck.

I try to mix it up so everyone has a great time regardless of their skills or age.  I also make sure that everyone leaves with a prize.  This may seem difficult but what I do is play the left right game.  Rachel makes up the story and I buy lots of inexpensive prizes and wrap them up.  It's fun to watch our extended family check out the prizes before the game and then try and figure out where to sit so they can keep their selected prize after all of the passing happens.

Here are a few other games we play:

#1. Turkey shoot.  I dress up in a turkey costume and strut across the cul de sac as everyone gets a chance to shoot me with a dollar store bow and arrow.  The deer hunters in our family really get excited over this one.  Surprisingly, the hunters don't always win.  Not surprisingly they ask if they can bring their cross bow next year.  If you do this one make sure you provide the bow and arrow ;) and wear protective eye glasses; you don't want to shoot out an eye!

#2. Another fun game is turkey bowling.  I set up children's bowling pins and we bowl with a frozen chicken down our drive way.  I started using a chicken because Great Grandma couldn't handle a 12 pound turkey.  Great fun.

#3.  We also hang donuts from strings and race to eat them without hands.  The grand children really get a kick out of seeing Grandma and Great Grandma with glaze all over their faces.

#4.  Then there is the drop the candy corn into a narrow necked bottle.  Each participant gets a try at dropping 25 candy corn into a narrow necked bottle while kneeling on the seat of a chair.  They must rest their arm on the top of the chair so that all have an equal distance from the bottle.  Whomever gets the most corn in the bottle wins the prize.  When my children and nieces were small we used a wide mouth mason jar for them.

#4. This year for our sedentary game we are going to have people write a caption for some of the funny family photos I have.  This is a great game because our extended family reminisces over the photos, people like to be creative, and let's face it, who doesn't like laughing at themselves?  Everyone submits their caption for each photo and I quickly type them up.  Next we vote on the captions. The person with the most votes for their caption wins.  Here's an example of a funny family photo we will be using.  This is our son Tyler.

Email me your caption for this photo and if selected you will win a copy of my latest book, The Queen of Common Cents: 1001 ways to Save Money and Time.  Email entries to m_snow61@hotmail.com  Entries must be received by November 30, 2011.  Winner will be announced on December 1, 2011