As most everyone who has ever cooked for a large Thanksgiving Day gathering knows, the key is planning and pre-preparation for as many dishes as possible. If you have family members willing to brink desserts, or their favorite dish, it helps too, because you can focus on things like decor, expanding the eating area, if you have large gatherings, and making sure everything is perfect for your guests.

If Turkey and stuffing (or ‘dressing’ in the south, where it is made with cornbread instead of other bread) are on the menu, try this simple suggestion: Rather than cooking the stuffing inside your bird, boil and bone a chicken the day before, bake cornbread (or get the bread ready that you intend to use) completely prepare the stuffing according to the recipe you like best, and put it in the refrigerator in a baking pan, ready to pop into the oven the next morning.

If you find turkey dry, or bland, simply take 10 chicken bullion cubes, a diced onion, minced garlic cloves, 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 Tablespoons of seasoned meat tenderizer, red pepper to taste, and two quarts of water. Cook until only one quart remains. Strain this cooled liquid through a cheesecloth, or fine wire strainer; use the onions and garlic in your stuffing or mashed potatoes, and buy a meat injector (looks like a giant syringe with a huge needle, and inject the spicy mixture into your thawed turkey.

This can be allowed to marinate overnight, but it actually works best if injected right before cooking the turkey, because it tends to drain out some if left over night. This method works for fried, baked, or smoked turkeys. Prepare all desserts the night before, and things like veggie trays, salads, cranberry sauce can be done the night before as well.

Bake or buy muffins that can be eaten by hand for breakfast, so you don’t have to worry about breakfast, or a breakfast mess, and you can even have your table set and decorated the night before.

Be certain to have plenty of relaxing activities, like movies for the post dinner lethargy that we all seem to have after eating Thanksgiving Dinner, but remember to have activities to keep the children entertained as well. They enjoy movies, for relaxing, but will have plenty of energy left.

Marshmallow Straw Contest

This is a new version of apple dunking. Take a large plastic bowl, fill it half way with ice water, and float full size marshmallows in it. Each child has a straw, cut in half. (Shorter straws are easier to suck and hold the marshmallow) Then have a contest to see who can get the marshmallow picked up in the shortest amount of time. Do this with only one or two children at a time so there will not be too many kids trying to catch the marshmallows at once. They can even eat the marshmallow when they capture it.
Pumpkin Bowling

Knock over the bowling pins. Make a strike or a spare. Select several miniature pumpkins for this game. You need extras in case a few split or break. Place plastic soda bottles, with dried beans in the bottom to weight them just a bit, as bowling pins several feet away on the lawn or floor of the room.
You can let the kids decorate the soda bottles with Halloween objects before the game. Measure off several feet. Give each child two tries to knock down the pins. I strike is worth two pieces of candy. A spare is worth one piece of candy.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies (http://partysupplieshut.com), using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has a huge selection of free party games, coloring pages, word find, word scramble, printable baby and bridal shower activities. Thanksgiving Party Games (Thanksgiving-Party.com), holiday party planning tips, recipes, menus, printable activities and free coloring pages.

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Start off your thanksgiving holiday right with some fun and free thanksgiving games to keep the guests entertained. These are easy little activities that help remind everyone of the point of the thanksgiving holiday while keeping everyone involved.

Its autumn and outside there is a veritable wonderland of interesting stuff. Have the guests get all bundled up and head outside while waiting for the food to cook with this Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt. You’ll need to make up a list of the following items that the guests can find by themselves or they can break up into groups to scavenge. They are:

a red leaf

a brown leaf

an orange leaf

a yellow leaf

a pine cone

an acorn

a walnut

a dried weed or pod

a seed

a piece of bark

a sweet gum ball

dried berries

feather

The first group to get all of the items or to get the most items wins. You can hand out special prizes for winning such as feather boas which are made from turkey feathers.

The Giving Thanks game is a fun activity that also helps to remind the family what the point of Thanksgiving really is all about. Have everyone sit in a circle and start off the game with a sentence that lists something really unusual that you are thankful for such as, ‘I am thankful for Hotdogs because’ and then the person to your right has to finish the sentence with the reason why they are thankful. When they’ve completed the sentence they get to begin a new one with the wildest subject they can think of to be thankful for. This can be anything, aliens, feet, or even sneezes. Try and keep the circle going as long as you can.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies (http://partysupplieshut.com), using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has a huge selection of free party games, coloring pages, word find, word scramble, printable baby and bridal shower activities. Thanksgiving Party Games (Thanksgiving-Party.com), party planning tips, recipes, printable activities and free coloring pages.

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