When I say Thanksgiving what comes to mind? Getting together with family and friends? Cooking all day? The wonderful smell of turkey and pies in the oven? Thanksgiving can mean many different things to people here in the United States. For some it's a day to invite family over to celebrate. Others would rather celebrate it at a friends house. Some travel across the country to be with loved ones. And others skip the work of making a dinner at home and eat their Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. However we choose to celebrate the day; it's important for us as scrapbookers to document the events and traditions surrounding our Thanksgiving activities.

I grew up a Marine brat overseas. Our Thanksgiving dinners were never very large because we were thousands of miles away from our family. My mom always did an excellent job of making all our favorites every year. My husband on the other hand grew up in California surrounded by his family. Their Thanksgiving meals are huge gatherings; with kids running around, people all over the house talking and laughing, and the kitchen bustling with people preparing the meal. When it was my turn to make my first Thanksgiving dinner I planned well in advance so that everything would go smoothly that day. My mother-in-law flew out from California and joined my husband and I and our one year old son for dinner. The dinner went off without a hitch; nothing got burned or undercooked. It was perfect. Below in my Thanksgiving Feast layout I captured the day and the menu for our Thanksgiving meal. Only 2 pictures were taken of the day so I didn't have much to work with. One of the pictures didn't turn out well so I used a square punch to punch out some of the food I prepared on the table. In my layout I used a great new product-Shimmer Sheetz. Shimmer Sheetz are acid free mylar you can punch, emboss, cut, stamp or just mat your picture. I used the gold Shimmer Sheetz to mat my picture and then I punched out a few gold leaves. Another great product I used is Magenta's mesh paper. I absolutely love this paper-you can get the mesh look without adding bulkiness to your page. It comes in a wide variety of color and mesh designs. I kept this layout simple-and it was simple to make because of the pre-made stickers I used. I also used one of my favorite time-savers-the Quickutz! Instead of laboring over a handcut title with an exacto knife; you can make beautiful titles in a matter of minutes using the personal Quickutz die-cutting system.

You can start working on your Thanksgiving layouts the day of Thanksgiving. Have a couple sheets of cardstock out with an acid-free pen and have guests write down what they are thankful for.

When you are ready to work on your Thanksgiving layouts ask yourself the following questions:
-What did we eat?
-Who was there?
-Where did we eat?
-What were the events that day?
-Did you watch any parades?
-Who made the dinner and who washed the dishes?
-Are there are special traditions that you do each year?
-What did do after the dinner? Watch football? Sleep?
-You can even include if you went to sleep early to get ready for the biggest shopping day of the year the next day.