The Turkey Hunt

Thanksgiving Day itself was super amazing and action-packed.  But before we could get to the main event, the food, we had to run a "Turkey Trot" around the neighborhood, play football, and share our lists of "10 things we are grateful for."  Each activity was fun in its own right, made even better by willing and energetic participants!

With that many guests of varying ages, I wanted a way to create good interaction between the generations while doing something fun and memorable.  Enter The Turkey Hunt!!

I found the idea online and it has everything you'll need to print out for free!  (Just follow the link above.)

It's fun as is, however, I added my own twist to this game.  

I hid 12 printed turkeys throughout the house for the children to find.  On the back of each turkey I wrote something that one of the aunt/uncles/grandparents said they were grateful for.  

For example, one person said they were grateful for "sandwich-sliced dill pickles".  When the children found that turkey, they had to match it up with the relative who said they were grateful for pickles.

As a result, the kids were racing around our house asking all of the adults, "Are you grateful for sandwich-sliced dill pickles?"  "Are you grateful for pickles??"  The adults then answer yes or no.  If it's yes, then the children would write down the name of the correct family member next to the right turkey number on their score card.

The children found the turkeys either on their own or worked together and as a result we had questions of all sorts being asked at any given moment.  "Do you love technology?"  "Are you grateful for the fairy house in your garden?"  "Are you grateful for boy scouts??"

When they had found all of the turkeys and had made the correct guesses, they were able to pick from a prize basket containing Thanksgiving trail mix, Thanksgiving sticker books, and a few Rudolph glow-in-the-dark noses (which Scarlett and Sam quickly claimed!)

This game was so exciting and lasted quite a while and there was lots of laughter and interaction.  

Some of the clues were so hilarious.  Like my father-in-law who said, "I am grateful that my sister didn't die when I shot her in the head with an arrow."  

The kids were astonished by this story and wanted to hear more!  (Since most of the kids were from my side of the family, they hadn't hear this story before!)  And then there was Steve's insistence that he was "thankful for his beautiful hair."  Funny for obvious reasons.

(Yeah, I wrote that one!)

Another person used their clue to make a special announcement, which was news to almost all of us at the party!  But I'm not saying who that was or what it was.  If you were there, then you know!

Coming up next:  Thanksgiving - Part III: Mealtime!

And here's Thanksgiving - Part I: Thumbprint Family Tree