Several years ago, my family started the tradition of having a “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” themed meal on Thanksgiving Eve while we watch the classic special together. If you’ve not seen the show, poor Charlie Brown is inundated with last-minute, self-invited dinner guests. His plans were to eat Thanksgiving dinner at his grandmother’s house, so he has none of the traditional foods to feed them. He can’t cook anyway, except for cereal and toast, so he and his faithful beagle, Snoopy, prepare a kid-style feast for their friends.
They serve toast, popcorn, pretzels, jellybeans and ice cream sundaes.
My dinner plate with slightly burned cheese toast — just as I like it — on a fun, turkey-printed paper plate. They only had plain buttered toast in the Charlie Brown special, but I figured we could use a little protein!
I’m always busy cooking the night before Turkey Day, so having something so simple and fun for dinner is ideal to me! And the kids just love this little tradition. This was the first year that Jonah really knew what was going on. When he first saw his dinner plate, he did a double-take, as if he couldn’t believe his good fortune to climb into his chair and find a plate heaped with popcorn, pretzels AND candy! I couldn’t even get him to sit down for a while — he just stood there, happily shoveling popcorn into his mouth.
I love my family! And I love Thanksgiving!
And yes, I love my crazy husband with his totally goofy expressions!
In other Thanksgiving news, just for fun, I had the boys fill in a turkey poem prompt as part of their schoolwork this week. (Each sentence began with phrases to describe the turkey, such as, “It needs….” “It moves….” and they filled in the rest.)
What they came up with just cracked me up! Disturbing? Maybe if you aren’t accustomed to the ways of boys. And these sons of mine are utterly, totally, testosterone-charged BOYS!
Here is Zach’s:
It sees the gun in its face.
It hears the pump cock.
It feels the shiver down its spine.
It understands that it’s going to become dinner.
It moves left to right.
It needs to get out of sight!
It likes to get an adrenaline rush.
It wants a chase through the woods.
It eats one last berry, for good.
It dreams, asleep forever. It’s dead.
And Eli’s, with a rather humorous twist:
It sees the bazooka from far away.
It hears the bazooka fire.
It feels scared.
It understands its death.
It moves out of the way.
It needs pie.
It likes man.
It wants the man.
It eats the man.
It dreams good.
The end.