Family Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

Start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year with a family 5K.

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I ran  into an  awesome young man at our local 5K fun run in July.  It was his Turkey Trot  shirt that caught my eye and I had a fun time talking to him about this fun family tradition.

Every Thanksgiving, this family hosts a 5K race for all visiting family members and friends. All that want to  participate, bring their running or walking shoes and burn off all those weighty Thanksgiving dinner calories before the turkey even comes  out of the oven.

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What a fun idea to have t-shirts made for the big race- a fun memento of a fun day.  I love any activity that gets family members up off their seats and moving and a family turkey trot certainly does that whether you trot or waddle across the finish line.

PSYCH! A Multiplayer Game For Your Phone and… Your Family Reunion

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I recently attended my nieces wedding,  luncheon and reception. Everything was beautiful and I loved being part of the festivities but like most weddings and such there is a lot of downtime for those of us who are basically spectators.  During one of these downtimes my brother introduced us to  a fun  game you can  play on your phone that involves everyone.

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The name of the game is Psych!  Choose from a variety of fun categories in which each player makes up fake answers to real trivia questions.

According to the games own  description-  the idea behind the game is to get together with a bunch of friends and answer ridiculous trivia questions. The catch is, the multiple choices you’re given include the correct answer as well as a bunch of incorrect answers which are provided by the other players. So, say for instance the question popped up of “Who is the Editor in Chief of TouchArcade?” “Eli Hodapp” would be in there somewhere, along with whatever else anyone playing decides to toss into the mix as possible answers.

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Anyone who knows me will understand that, after playing a few rounds of Pysch! with  my family, my “reunion” brain kicked into gear and I immediately began to think of ways to use the game at a family reunion.

Can you imagine how excited the teenagers in  your family would be if you asked them  to get their cellphones for a game they would be playing. Psych! is a clever way to get family members that just  can’t seem set their cellphones  down to join in  a game or activity to participate with the group.

Psych! is also a pretty fun  way  to get to know family members that you see only once a year at the  family reunion.  Some of the  game options give you a real opportunity to see into your cousin’s psyche.

“PSYCH!” is the perfect app for game night, road trips, or even waiting in line. So grab your phones, gather ‘round, and get ready for a gaming experience unlike anything you’ve ever tried!

NOTE:There’s in-game ads as well, which can be removed for $2.99. If you’re just downloading the game to play with a friend (who might have bought a ton of stuff in-game), it’s totally free.

Planning a School Reunion Party

 

Whether it’s been 10 years, 20 years or 50 years, high school reunions are a time to catch up with old friends and reminisce about days gone by. Planning a school reunion can be a daunting task but the ideas shared in this article written by Sally Fain gives many  helpful suggestions to help you start  planning and soon you’ll find yourself catching up with bygone friends.

Planning a School Reunion Party

By Sally Fain

If you’re curious about what happened to all your old school friends, who married who, what jobs they’re doing now and how many of you have kids, why not find out by having a school reunion party?

Locating Your Old Friends

The first thing you need to do when planning the perfect reunion is find all your old friends.

The Place to Start is Facebook

As more than one billion people worldwide have a Facebook account. If your friends have identified what school they attended in the education section of their profile, you may be able to find them that way as Facebook can link you with others who attended your school. You can also search by name and surname but this is more difficult as people get married and change their names and some choose a nickname for their account.
You do have the option of posting a request for your friends to get in touch with you via the site and for a very small advertising fee, you can ‘boost’ your post so that it is highlighted and appears on Facebook’s News feed. This will attract more attention to it.

School Search Engines

You can also try Gradfinder, an entirely free search engine that allows you to search for your school and covers all states.

If you don’t know the contact details of your school, you could try the American School Directory – an extensive nationwide directory that provides fax numbers, phone numbers, addresses and other details for all public, private and catholic schools.
Once you have located the school you can ask if a reunion request can be published on their website.
Once you’ve found your friends form your reunion committee. Planning things out will be less stressful and more manageable with help!

Pick a Sensible Location 

Some of your friends may have to travel from other countries so you should pick a location that is nearer for the majority. It should also be near a hotel so that those travelling long distances have somewhere to stay overnight.

Keep the Venue Affordable

If some of your friends are paying a lot for fuel airline tickets in order to attend the reunion, don’t hire out an expensive venue which would then require you to sell expensive tickets. This will reduce the turn out for your event. For more affordable venues, ask about hiring your church hall or community center.

Another great idea to is ask your old school authority if you can hold your reunion at the school that you all went to. Not only will it add to the charm of your reunion, but the money you spend on hiring the school hall will be given to the school to benefit its current students. Its other advantage is that school accommodation is usually large so it shouldn’t be a problem if your mates bring their husbands, wives and children with them.

Fundraise in Advance

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 Don’t pay for everything up front as you may get people dropping out. Attendance should be by invitation only, where guests who wish to come send a ticket fee with their invitation slip (or for ease and speed, you could set up a function via facebook and paypal and have them send their acceptance and ticket fee online). If you don’t want to individually charge for tickets, you could try fundraising by appealing on social media or setting up a GoFundMe page.

Decide on the Theme of Your Party

Discuss with your friends the theme you would like for your get together. If you want to give your party a high school theme you could specify that guests come in fancy dress. Costume hire stores and ebay sell school uniform costumes, graduation hats and gowns and other accessories.
You can ask guests to email copies of high school photographs that you can then use to decorate the walls with.
Another idea is to play music from the year you graduated or theme your event around the music and media from that year.

Play Group Games

Consider playing group games after dinner to get everyone involved and talking to each other. Family Reunion Helper can provide downloadable print outs for group games. Print outs contain instructions for games, patterns for game accessories and themed ideas.

Give Goodie Bags 

You could give parting goodie bags with small items from your graduating school year, for instance, a coin from the year, small fashion items or chocolate.
Remember the Place Tags – Put named place holders at the table where you eat or, if it’s a buffet, ask everyone to wear name tags. Everyone will have changed a lot since they were 18!

Consider Having a Slide Shown or PowerPoint Presentation 

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Have a slide show or one comprising home video footage of everyone when they were younger and give everyone the opportunity to say what they’re doing now. Revisit the “good old days” by showing pictures of memorable high school moments.

Give Everyone a Throw Away Camera

Give Everyone a Throw Away Camera  so they can take their own unique snapshots of the event from their perspective. Alternatively, make your own reunion website and ask guests to take pictures on their cell phones and download them to the site so everyone can share their snaps afterwards.