The time between Halloween and Thanksgiving always seems to fly by.   Actually, the time between Halloween and New Year’s always flies by, but unlike Starbucks who introduces their red cups on November 1st, I like to celebrate each holiday in order. When I was first married, I hosted Thanksgiving at my house.  The week used to be a very busy one for my husband and many of our friends.  Now, one thing I am thankful for is that he does not take on a lot of work that week!  For the past two years, we have traveled to my sister’s in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. We are returning this year, too. It is one of two holidays (the other is 4th of July) we travel on, but I don’t mind because I still get to help and cook my favorite dishes and my sister’s kitchen is much bigger than mine!!

While I was planning for our Halloween Party, I found what I thought to be perfect orange paper to use for the invitations and the menu cards.  Well, when I got home and unwrapped the paper, I found it was actually an oversized post-it pad. Grrrr – who needs huge post-its?  In bright orange? So much for quickly throwing things in your cart because your toddler is actually calm without properly reading the label!

Olivia started asking this week when are we going to Atlanta? It gave me an idea for the orange post-it pad.  We could make a countdown to Atlanta calendar, and each night Olivia can rip off one post-it.

We started by looking at a bunch of turkey pictures online.  Olivia liked the one that she could tell was made from tracing a hand.  I printed pictures out and we took out our scissors and glue.

Here’s what we ended up with!  Now each night before bed, Olivia tears off a post-it as we count down the days until our trip.  I knew I wanted to put it on the side of our refrigerator, where our Summer Calendar used to be, because it is perfect eye level for Olivia.

Full disclosure – when I stuck the post-its on the fridge, it was too heavy and it fell down.  I had to use magnets on each side to hold it up.

What are your plans for turkey day?  Do you host?  Travel?  Leave a comment and let me know.  In the next two weeks, I will re-post my preparing for Thanksgiving checklists, more fall favorite recipes from our Family Cookbook Scrapbook, and ideas for great hostess gifts if you are having your big meal somewhere other than your home.

As always, thanks for reading!  Have a great weekend.