Next week, Chris and I will host our first Thanksgiving!

I've noticed that at previous Thanksgiving meals we have a good time getting together with family but it seems that there's the great anticipation for the meal, we fill our plates, and eat in about 20 minutes. Then everyone begins drifting towards the football game on television or cleaning up. I would really love to host a memorable meal where we have engaging conversation and linger at the table. So, along with my Thanksgiving menu (which I'll share next week), I've been brainstorming activities and new traditions to liven up our Thanksgiving.

Here's what we're planning:

XBox dance challenge and football toss. It turns out that Chris is awesome at the dancing games on XBox. As in, he is undefeated (much to my chagrin). We're going to have a few rounds of a video game dance challenge while we're snacking on appetizers to see if Chris is still the champ. It'll give our young niece and nephew a chance to get some energy out before sitting down for a meal and it will be hilarious for all of us to watch. Chris also loves to toss around a football before or after the meal so we'll be sure to get outside and do that too, the weather is always wonderful (if a tad warm) here.

A tablecloth of thanks. I'm going to set the table with a plain white tablecloth and have everyone write what they're thankful for this year on the tablecloth with a permanent marker and the year. Each year we can add to the tablecloth and it will be fun to look back and see what we wrote in years past. It could even be something that gets passed on to Dashiell one day!

Words to eat by. We'll be having three courses and at the beginning of each one there will be a short reading, such as a poem (Chris's dad is composing an original one for the meal!), interesting story or fact about the holiday. I'm planning to have my niece and nephew participate in this too by giving them something to read aloud. I'm planning to chose readings from the beautiful Treasury for all Seasons by Julie Andrews.

Family member trivia. I've asked each person who will be at the meal to send me two trivia questions about themselves but not tell me the answer. I'll write each question and family member's name on a slip of paper and put them all in a jar. During the meal we can pull out questions and see how how much we know about each other! I've already received a few questions and neither Chris nor I know the answers – I'm interested to hear the stories behind the trivia.

If you have any Thanksgiving traditions I would love to hear about them!