New Thanksgiving Traditions

I mentioned earlier that I was going to start a new family tradition and make a Thanksgiving apron with turkey handprints. As it turns out, I decided to upgrade the gifts for each Grandma to a tabler runner. I thought their aprons might fill up with handprint turkeys rather fast (given the number of grandchildren) so we needed something larger to work with. I had to run to a lot of stores to find table runners that would work, but after lots of shopping, I found plain (on both sides) gold table runners at Target that were perfect. I bought one for each Grandma. 

On Thanksgiving morning we painted up Stella's hand and attempted to make a handprint turkey for Grandma C's table runner. Needless to say, keeping a 4 month old's hand open is kind of tricky. The colored feathers all blurred together and the turkey resembles a kind of brown blob (sorry no pictures). Oh well, that will bring back memories each year of her little clenched hand covered in paint. We're still waiting for Ruby to come to Madison for Christmas so she can add her handprint to the runner.
A few days after Thanksgiving we celebrated the holiday at my parents house and with five grandchildren there, we were able to add five handprints to Grandma G's table runner. I have to say, the second time around went more smoothly for Stella's handprint. (One adult holding the fingers open, one applying the paint and a third to assist with any squirming.) All the other handprints turned out great too! I can't wait to see how it looks in a few years after we've added more turkeys. I think it will be a fun addition to our family Thanksgiving celebration.

I also made a whole rafter (yes, that's the proper term for a group of turkeys) of turkey cupcakes. They turned out cute and yummy too! I took the short cut and used a mix and pre-made frosting. I made German chocolate cupcakes with coconut pecan frosting. I used toasted-coconut marshmallows from Jet-Puffed for the head, a gummy fish for the beak, two chocolate sprinkles for eyes and candy corns for tail feathers. The turkey cupcakes are a great alternative to pumpkin pie for those of us that think that the best dessert is a chocolate dessert!