Dinner's Over --- Now What?

After prayers are said, thanks are given and bellies are bulging over their belts, you could settle in to a tryptophan-induced Turkey Day stupor. Or, you could indulge guests in some post-dinner festivities. Here are some fun tricks to pull from your pilgrim’s hat this Thanksgiving.

STACK YOUR BLESSINGS JENGA

Play the game of Jenga with a twist. Each time a block is removed, the player must write upon it something she’s grateful for before replacing it on top. Recycle this game at next year’s party for a tower of ever-growing gratitude.

TABLE TOP THANKS

With permanent markers on a plastic tablecloth, have everyone record as many things as they can think of they are grateful for. Re-use this tablecloth every year at Thanksgiving.

MAYFLOWER FLOATS

Before guests arrive, cut small Tropicana orange juice cartons in half with an exact-o knife, and spray paint them brown. Each guest writes his name on a ship and decorates it with stickers, sequins, raffia ropes and sails. Walk a trail to a nearby creek and—ready, set, Speedwell—have a boat race.

THIMBLE GAME

For roars of laughter at the tip of your finger, give this wet and raucous game a go-round. Gather a thimble and small ramekin of water. Sitting around a table, the person with the thimble calls out a category, such as an animal, food or favorite Kansas City landmark. Everyone around the table, in turn, must guess the name of the specific thing the person is thinking (if the category is “Kansas City landmark,” a guess might be “Union Station”). The thimble-bearer dips the thimble in water and douses the person who guesses correctly, and that person becomes the new thimble-bearer.

NAME THAT TUNE

Before the party, compile a list of each guest’s favorite song from the past year and load it on your iPod. Have everyone try to match each person to his song. Then go ahead—be a turkey and throw a dance party. Burn the songs to CDs for everyone to take home.

PUMPKIN ROLL RELAY

Break out your broomsticks. Each team, using a broom, must roll a pumpkin to a line and back in a relay. Look for round pumpkins of equal size, about 8-10” in diameter.

BLIND TURKEYS

Each team gets a large sheet of craft paper and, with a marker, must take turns drawing a turkey, blindfolded.

The first player draws the body…

The second draws the head…

The third draws the feathers, and so on.

The most accurate drawing wins.

PILGRIM TALK

Spend the remainder of the evening attempting to speak like proper pilgrims. Log on to http://www.Plimoth.org/Learn/Just-Kids/Talk-Pilgrim for a list of words and sound bytes that translate modern English into 17th century vernacular. Here’s a sampling:

“How are you?” = “What cheer?” or “How now?”“Excuse Me” = “Pray pardon me”“Congratulations” = “Huzzah!”“Goodbye” = “Fare thee well” or “Pray remember me”“Backward” = “Arsy varsy”

FAMILY TRIVIAL PURSUIT

If you own the classic game of Trivial Pursuit, pull it out. Use the game pieces and board, but ditch the questions and categories for ones you create yourself, specific to your family. Categories could include “Ancestry,” “Our Modern Family,” “Grandpa’s Growing-Up Years” or “According to Aunt Edna.”

GOBBLE THE GIBLETS FEAR FACTOR

Who has the guts among your child guests? After cleaning the cavity of Mr. Gobbles, tonight’s main dish, boil the giblets. Display and name each organ, then slice them into pieces for the kids to play a stomach turning game of Fear Factor.

SURVIVOR: NEW WORLD EDITION

Before dinner, place a sealed envelope beneath each chair with the name of a pilgrim written on the outside, and the pilgrim’s fate recorded inside. After dinner, open the envelopes in turn to discover who survived the first winter in the New World. Some historic names (*denotes children):

Died aboard the Mayflower: Dorothy Bradford, *William Butten, James Chilton, *Jasper More, *Edward Thompson

Died the first winter: Sarah Eaton, *John Hooke, Christopher Martin, *Mary More, Degory Priest, *Solomon Prower, Rose Standish, Agnes Tilley, Thomas Tinker

Survivors present at the first Thanksgiving: Eleanor Billington, Mary Brewster, *Wrestling Brewster, *Mary Chilton, Francis Cooke, Samuel Fuller, *Giles Hopkins, Myles Standish, *Elizabeth Tilley

Wendy Connelly and her kids, from Overland Park, are especially grateful for their grandparents of 16 sixteen generations: William and Mary Brewster of the Mayflower Voyage. Elder William Brewster, the pilgrims’ spiritual leader, offered the prayer over the first Thanksgiving feast.