Thanksgiving in a Country That Doesn’t Have Thanksgiving

One of the things that I’ve been keenly aware of (and somewhat concerned about) with Hannah going to school here in Luxembourg is that she doesn’t learn about significant pieces of American history and culture.

That includes Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated here in Luxembourg and she certainly isn’t going to learn about it at a British International School.  I mean, obviously.

Since we dabbled in a bit of homeschooling before she actually started school, I thought this would be a great time to put together some lessons on the topic.

I scoured the internet and found age appropriate reading material, videos and crafts relating to the history and meaning of this most special holiday.

We started out with this story that explains why the Pilgrims left England and how they sailed to America, landing at Plymouth Rock.

We watched these videos.

Part I

Part II

We talked about what a rough journey the pilgrims had sailing across the Atlantic and how they were crowded, uncomfortable and many of them were sick.
Then my parents sent her this Thanksgiving card with little mice pilgrims on the Mayflower.  I read the card to her and she crooked her head to the side and looked at it quizzically.

”Why are these pilgrims smiling?  I thought they were all sick.”

Then we made this craft. 
Now, you know how much I love kids’ handprint crafts, so this one was right up our alley.

When Shawn got home from work, Hannah showed him her masterpiece and explained that it was the Mayflower sailing across the ocean to America.

Then she leaned in close and whispered, “It looks like a big ship, but it’s really just my hand.”
Right.  It’s a good thing she explained because he never would have guessed.

Our next project was our “Thankful Tree” that is proudly displayed on the dining room table.

Every couple of days, we color and cut out a leaf, I write down what Hannah is thankful for and we hang it on the tree.  Templates for leaves can be found here.

We also worked on memorizing some Bible verses on thankfulness.

                                                              (source)

So that’s how we’re preparing for Thanksgiving in Luxembourg this year.
Last year, my sister came to visit us.  You can read about it here, here and here.

This is probably a good time to tell you that putting together a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in a country that doesn’t have Thanksgiving, well, it ain’t always easy.   It took me a few days, but I was able to track down just about everything I need.  I had to get a bit industrious and creative with a few recipes.  Oh, and I was also able to hunt down a 10 pound turkey.
(Not literally.)
(Kind of literally.)
It’s taking up nearly half of our teeny, tiny European refrigerator. 
Hopefully, it will fit in the oven when it’s time.

Thursday Shawn will be home early and I’m going to pick Hannah up from school early so that we can watch the Macy’s Parade (via Slingbox) and spend the entire afternoon and evening together – just the three of us.
I can’t think of a cozier way to spend the holiday.
Friday we’ll be back to our normal routine and we have some fun things planned for the weekend.

To our family in the US – we will miss you.  We are so thankful for you.

A Fairy Garden

Hannah and I have been working on a little project.
We turned a regular old plant box into a…

I found the galvanized metal plant box at a local discount store for a few dollars and brought it home and transferred two little plants that I already had.
Let me back up.
It didn’t exactly go that way.
You see, I also needed to buy potting soil and everything in the gardening section was in German/Luxembourgish (I can’t always tell the difference) and I thought I was buying potting soil.  When I got home and opened the bag, it turned out to be plant fertilizer.
Oops. 
I’ve found that when you don’t speak the language, it’s usually safe to go with the picture on the packaging.  I guess this isn’t the case in the lawn and garden department.
But I got it right on the second try.

The little house was given to Hannah by my mom.  It’s really a dog house for a tiny dog but is also the perfect size for a fairy so we painted it green and glued on some leaves and moss.  Then we made a “welcome” sign out of two little sticks from our backyard.
We debated making our sign in English or French and settled on English. 
“I think fairies probably speak English better than they speak French.  Kind of like us,” Hannah told me.

At the time we started, Hannah didn’t actually have any fairy dolls, so we added Cinderella’s fairy godmother, mouse and birds.
We found tiny drink umbrellas at the dollar store and used a pink jingle bell for the doorbell.

I made some itty-bitty bunting with scrap fabric, twine from Shawn’s toolbox and two sticks.

And then!  A package arrived from the US!
Shawn’s mom and dad sent two fairies for the fairy garden.
(Thank you!)

Hannah was at school when I picked the package up from the post office, so I placed Tink and Fawn in the garden for her to find when she got home. 

She asked if the fairies had shown up on their own and I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her, but I couldn’t let the grandparents not get the credit, right? 

1 planter box, 2 little plants, 2 fairies, lots of accessories and a bit of imagination = hours of fun for a little girl and her mama.

Reduce. Reuse. Make It Into a Little Bed.

Unless you count this framed photo collage that I started but haven’t finished in our foyer, I haven’t really done anything crafty or creative since we’ve been in Luxembourg.

(Ignore the radiator.  Houses in Europe don’t have central heating – each room’s temperature is controlled individually by radiators, making for decorative and furniture arranging challenges.)

Anyways, I haven’t done any sewing, either.
When we got here four months ago, Shawn hooked my sewing machine up to a transformer-something-or-other so that it would work with a European electrical outlet.
There it is under the desk.
Not as obtrusive as the radiator, but still not very pretty, is it?


Then I realized that I was missing a piece to my sewing machine.
It must have gotten lost in the move.

I got online and ordered another – it was less than $6.  Score.
But it was on backorder and wouldn’t be shipped for eight weeks.
Oh, and the company I ordered it from is in the US but told me they can’t ship internationally. 
Even when I offered to pay for it.  Boo.
 
I had it delivered to my parents’ house and they sent it to me.
Thanks, guys!

So, where was I?  Oh, yes.  The crafting.
Today we finished the strawberries that came in this sturdy, wooden box.
It was too nice to throw away or even put in the recycle bin.

So I gave it a good wash, a coat of black spray paint and gathered up some scrap batting and fabric.

I made some little sheets, a tiny pillow and cozy comforter.

And we put it all together to make a bed fit for a horse.

Or a purple bunny.

Or a duck and a purple bunny.
(Scandalous!)

Up next: something pretty to cover that clunky, metal transformer box.

Christmas Handprint Crafts

I’ve mentioned before that I love crafts that involve kiddo handprints.
It’s so much fun to look back and see how they’ve grown.

Last Mother’s Day, we made THIS.

Today, Hannah and I got the paints out again and made some Christmas art.
I wish I could say that I came up with all of these ideas myself.
The truth is that I’ve been pinning them on Pinterest for months now.

All you need is construction paper, paint, a few brushes and stickers.
Oh, and some little hands and feet, of course.
We started out by painting hers green.

Then we stamped them onto a piece of construction paper and made a Christmas tree.

I painted a trunk and she added stickers and details.

Next we painted her foot brown and I added the details to make baby Jesus in the manger.

Then we got silly. 
Both of our fingerprints make this string of lights.
I kept thinking about that line from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation:
”The little lights aren’t twinkling.”
”I know that, Art, and thanks for noticing.”
That movie never gets old.

And finally, Rudy and two of his buddies.
Hannah’s precious thumbprints with my poor attempts at reindeer faces.

What a fun way to spend a cold morning.
We added four new decorations to our Christmas stash.
Our paintings aren’t perfect, but the memories we created sure come close.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

The other night, Shawn came home from work exhausted, so after dinner, I decided to find a little activity that Hannah and I could do outside so that he could rest for a while. 

We made sidewalk chalk paint!
It’s super easy and really cheap.

You’ll need: 
cold water 
corn starch
food coloring
paint brushes
dishes or containers for the paint

Mix 1/4 cup cold water and 1/4 cup corn starch.  (Put the corn starch in first and then add the water. It mixes up way easier this way.)

Add food coloring.

Go crazy. 
Mix colors. 
This is a great lesson about primary and secondary colors for preschoolers.

Then let your little artist go to town.
Or to the driveway.  Whatevs. 
As the paint dries, it looks just like chalk!

We started out with sponge brushes, but they got torn up pretty quickly by the cement, so we found some regular old brushes in the garage.

Oh, and don’t forget to wear a strand of purple beads. 

(Sometimes she’s a righty, sometimes a lefty.)

We used up nearly every drop of paint. 
Next time, I think we’ll double our recipe.

Clean up is easy. 
Hose down the driveway.  Or don’t.  Just wait for a big rain.
Toss the containers in the dishwasher and the kiddo in the bathtub. 

Happy painting!

You Say Faux, I Say Fox

When I see the word “faux” in print, in my mind, I pronounce it “fox.”  Here’s the back story:
As newlyweds, Shawn and I bought an el cheapo faux leather ottoman for our living room.  After a few days, I mentioned that I thought that the smell of the new “leather” ottoman had an odd quality about it.

“Well, that’s what we get for buying fox leather.”
”Fox leather?” 
“Yea, that means fake leather.  Faux, fox, whatever.  It’s mostly plastic, ya know.”

Right.

I love the faux (fox) necklace shirts that I’ve been seeing around lately.
So I made one.
And I’ll show you how to make one too.

 

You’ll need:
Shirt in any style and color
Fabric paint in Velveteen finish
Fabric paint with sparkles
Anything you can find around your house that will make a round stamp (I used the end of a foam paint brush, the cap to a tube of chap stick, and the eraser end of a pencil.)
 

Start by finding the center of your shirt so that your necklace is symmetrical.  To do this, I folded mine in half and pressed a seam down the center.

You’ll want to place a piece of cardboard between the two layers of the shirt so that the paint does not bleed through.  I used the front of a cereal box.

Start painting your “beads” from the center of your shirt.  Work your way up to the shoulder on one side and then the other. 

I used the eraser end of a pencil to make small silver beads and the cap of a tube of chap stick to make a silver chain. 

You can make as few or as many necklaces as you like.
Let the paint dry for about 4 hours.
Then comes the fun part!  Turn your iron on and let it get hot and steamy.  Hold the iron about 1/2 inch over the paint and blast it with steam.  The steam will cause the velveteen paint to raise up, giving it the look of velvet. 

 

After the steaming, I added a fabric flower with some scraps left from curtains that my grandma made for my aunt a while back.  You can find the tutorial here.  My friend Julie also has some great tutorials for fabric flowers that you can find here. 
Totally adorbs.

This will be a wardrobe staple this summer and in the fall, I think it will look cute with a long sleeved shirt underneath.  
I may even make one for myself!