Mobile Apps for Thanksgiving Day

by Stephanie on November 23, 2010

The following post is from Stephanie of BizzieMommy.com:

Thanksgiving apps

source: ckroberts61

Growing up, I could never understand why my parents hosted Thankgiving at our house. Every Thanksgiving morning I would come into the kitchen wanting breakfast and the first thing they would say was, “We didn’t cook because we will be having a big dinner.”

I would scramble to make myself a bowl of cereal while watching my parents run from one end of the kitchen getting the days food together. Every year was the same thing: everything would be out of place, someone would always run out of something and someone else would have to scramble to the store before it closed for the day. Then there was the cleaning, the part I hated most.  It is such a hectic day: the cleaning, the cooking, the yelling, the nagging and then finally the eating.

Now that I’m old enough to host my own Thanksgiving, I have collected a few things in my arsenal to prepare and entertain even the smallest guests:

Apps to keep little ones entertained

  • Dot Connect! Thanksgiving ($0.99) – help your little one learn numbers and celebrate Thanksgiving in a fun ad colorful way.
  • Thanksgiving Day ($0.99) – an encyclopedia of information about Thanksgiving day perfect for those curious preteens.
  • Thanksgiving It! (FREE) – play with your pictures by decorating them with Thanksgiving themed props.

Apps to help prepare your Thanksgiving feast

Apps to pass time

  • Thanksgiving Crafts ($2.99) – Designed for both the iPad and iPhone, this app offers fabulous crafts to keep kids and adults busy while dinner is being prepared
  • NFL.com Game Center 2010 (FREE) – For those sports fans out there who don’t want to miss any minute of the game, this app records Highlights, Live Scoreboards play by plays and much more. Though I wouldn’t recommend checking out the game at the dinner table.

Do you have another must-have Thanksgiving app to add to the list?

Stephanie Elie balances 2 jobs, 2 kids, 2 blogs and a husband and loves every bit of it. Stephanie is the author of BizzieMommy.com, and you will never find this LA tech junkie without her iPhone, Canon DSLR and laptop, all dressed in her favorite color, Pink.

Tagged as: apps, iphone


  • Vered | Blogger for Hire

    I like the advice on avoiding anti bacterial soaps for the household. I wish they would be banned!

  • Anonymous

    I do want to second the tip to invest in some lotion infused tissue if you are having a bad bout with runny noses in the house. It can make a huge difference!
    Another tip, if you use medications, is to learn the differences of ingredients in medications, and know which products to use for which symptoms. For instance, guafenesin is an expectorant, and thins mucus and is the main ingredient in Mucinex. This is good to take to help keep stuff thinned out and less inviting to harbor bacteria.
    Bernice
    Life… Your Way Moderator
    My latest post- There is a God and it isn’t me

  • http://shortystylee.wordpress.com/ Jessica

    I have a mat outside the door and HUGE one inside the door. Our apartment complex uses this scary green rock salt that I am rather wary of >_<

  • Lori

    As I read this my DS is sitting on my doormat playing. It is his “spot” much of the time. See we have a sliding glass door right in the kitchen. That is where he sees the snow and talks to the outside kitty. I honestly think it would be more sanitary to just use my steam mop at the end of the day and have no doormat holding all the toxins. We dont have many people coming in and out of our door. Just DH at the end of the day and DS and I a couple times a week. So it wouldn’t be that hard to clean up after DH came home. Our rock is salt is just salt no chemicals so I would hope it not all that toxic. Though I have been trying to teach my DS (he is only 15 months) not to play with the shoes.

  • Eternalvoyageur

    In Europe the doormats are always on the outside…

  • http://practicallyspent.blogspot.com Julie

    People already think I’m nuts about not allowing shoes in the house. I’ll even have the kids change pants and socks if they’ve been at gymnastics or walking around in the hallway of school before they’ve changed from boots to shoes and back again. Surely this is over the top for anyone I know, but it just makes sense to me. It gets harder when the kids age and their friends come over. Their socks have been worn all over the place. How do you handle that kind of stuff?

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Julie,
      I guess I don’t even think about friends’ socks so much, unless they’re running right over the mat. ??? I freak out about 0.0001% of the time and toss up my hands or ignore stuff the rest of the time! At least the friends’ socks aren’t going directly into the 2yo’s crib… :) Katie

  • anonymous

    Hi Katie-
    While I understand the point you are trying to make, and I agree with you about the pesticides, etc., I do want to caution you to be careful in not stressing too much about it. I really think you just have to do the best you can and then just let it go. I have personally dealt with some pretty severe OCD issues the last 5 years or so (and this was definitely adult onset, as I didn’t deal with this as a kid), and I gotta tell you, reading your post above, where you’re describing your thought process as to the doormat and shoes and tracking the yucky into the house (and onto the couch, into the bed)…just seems waaaay too familiar. Although my issues are more with the dirt/germs/bacteria (as in, you didn’t wash your hands after touching the toilet and now you’re touching everything else in the house and kind of freaking me out), it’s the same train of thought that I see you outlining above, and I really think it’s a slippery slope, and one that I’m working desperately to change in my own mind. Yes, logically I know that the germs can’t hurt me and that nothing bad will happen (and have even read and agree with all your posts on the subject!), but it doesn’t change the way I feel about it. And yes, I agree that there is a real issue with the chemicals you may be tracking in, but again, there’s only so much you can do and at some point, you just have to let it go. I actually have a good friend who has dealt with some OCD issues similar to mine, but with her, she freaks out over the chemicals and pesticides, to the point where she even had her husband strip down at the back door before coming back into the house if he’d been working in the yard (due to possible pesticides on the yard).

    What I’ve found so interesting the last couple of years, though, is that these sorts of OCD issues are much more common than most people think, as I’ve found many friends who have had struggles similar to mine, even though not nearly as severe as mine were at one point (not to mention that they also developed these issues as an adult, NOT necessarily as a kid, as most people believe). And after reading so much info on REAL food over the past year or so and really opening my eyes to how many people struggle with not just OCD-type issues but depression, anxiety and various degrees/forms of mental illness, I find it VERY scary how widespread it is and am convinced that our brains are malnourished and that it really does come down to food. I have definitely found that when I am taking my FCLO regularly and am eating better, my anxiety goes down and I’m able to handle the stress better.

    So, not to go off on too much of a tangent here, but I would definitely encourage you to use some caution in your thinking on this issue, because when you start taking your mind down this path of everywhere you “might” be tracking the yucky (whether it’s chemicals, pesticides or just general ickiness), that throws up some caution flags for me. One of the main books I’ve read on the subject talks a lot about being okay with uncertainty. You will never actually know what’s really on those shoes and by extension that doormat, your socks, your couch and even your bed, but at some point, you have to be okay with not knowing or you can make yourself crazy trying to clean it, get rid of it, etc.

    • Lynncrippen

      just wondering what FLCO might be. My 30 yo son has terrible OCD.
      thank you!

      • Jessica Moore

        FCLO=Fermented Cod Liver Oil
        I think Katie recommends Green Pasture as the only CLO that is fermented.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Oh, no! I didn’t mean to sound quite that over the edge with my little rant. Whoops! Thank you so much for your concern, but I’m definitely way too lazy to be OCD. I forget to wash my 2yo’s hands half the time before she eats and think of it about the time she’s taking the third bite of her sandwich… I’m definitely more yucked out over stuff that might be on our shoes than run-of-the-mill germs and such.

      Someday, I’ll have a mudroom – I lust for a mudroom! – and it can contain not only our dirt and pesticides but all our hats, mittens, bookbags, and other junk that creep into my kitchen space, along with my worries. :) ‘

      Thanks again for the concern, and I really like the thought of just being okay with uncertainty. As long as I’m on this earth, I’ll have to be at peace with that! :) Katie

  • Francesca

    I’ve been contemplating these things myself. It’s really hard to control things with two dogs- it’s exhausting to try to wipe them down and manage what they track in as much as I’d like. I do my best, but sometimes just have to leave it at that.

    • Amanda y.

      If your dogs only are in your yard and you don’t use chemicals on your property, you have little to worry about as far as chemicals they bring in–at least that’s how I think of it for my girl (pup)

  • kelly

    Oh boy Katie-you’d totally FREAK OUT at my house! We have 18 free ranging chickens, and 6 goats at our place. It’s impossible to walk outside without stepping in something! We also have 3 cats that come and go as they please. I’m sure our floor is teeming with “life”, but that’s just the way it is here, nothing could change it and I’m not sure I’d want to.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Kelly,
      Bring on the chickens and goats, just not the lawn spray! :) I’m probably much less crazy than this little rant made me sound… :) Katie

  • Amanda y.

    We totally enforce a shoes off at front door rule. We don’t go to that area unless we’re going in or out the door, so it’s nice. I think of this often! I’ll pass on chemicals and such too.

  • Candice H

    I was just thinking the LAST NIGHT about how much dust and dirt my door mat collects and how yucky it’s started looking but that I appreciate all that stuff wasn’t tracked through my house since we have a shoe rack right past it! LOL

  • Frances

    I got a beautiful new doormat for Christmas and want to transition my old one to being inside the door…but I know I need to clean it (top and bottom) first. Any recommendations on what to use and how to clean a doormat?

  • Mary

    Try using a mat on the step in the garage. The majority of the “yuck” should stay there and the interior mat will be much less contaminated. Hopefully that should ease your mind a bit.

  • Michaeleen

    We, too, have more farm “goo” than I can possibly contain. Not all is toxic as much as just messy and stinky – like the tiny rocks that can be brought in from our gravel drive! We actually have a “friendly” sign on our front door to remind guests to “Please remove your shoes”. We have a very nice rough mat outside the door to scrape shoes/boots and then a large rug (washable!) inside the door to step in on to remove footwear in the winter. Washing the indoor rug is key to keep the outside smells, well, outside. :)

  • becky

    What do you do when you have this rule and your mother won’t remove her shoes when she comes over? I find it so annoying and rude to wear your shoes in someone elses house but even though I have asked her to remove her shoes in my house, she refuses. My grandma has to wear shoes most of the time, so she has inside shoes that are only worn inside, so she brings those and changes. I would be fine if my mom would do that….. but she won’t listen to me in my home. Any thoughts?

  • Mary b

    I am far too laid back to worry about what is on my doormat. We have a long outside one on the porch, and one inside the door. We generally take our shoes off, (except DH), and I would never dream of asking my guests to take theirs off. We don’t do chemicals on our lawn or garden, so I guess I am not paranoid about tracking that in.. the worst may be a little gunk from going out
    I think our scoiety has gone way tooo far on the gerophobia.to feed the chickens. , but hey that’s all organic LOL!

  • http://blog.earthlingshandbook.org Becca

    We have our doormat OUTside the door. Would that work for you?

  • Jimmie

    I’m just going to stop with #1. :-) I’m taking a blogging break.

    • http://twitter.com/james_brooks James Brooks

      Good! Enjoy it! :) Merry Christmas!

  • http://www.momdropbox.com Audrey

    I like the idea of scheduling.  I appreciate consistency from blogs that I read, so I try to be consistent on my blog. 

  • Anonymous

    Great tips! I love Lipton soups, their chicken noodle is yummy!
    Bernice
    Life… Your Way Moderator
    My latest post- There is a God and it isn’t me

  • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

    Sarah,
    That’s really interesting! We got some salt that is supposed to be safe for kids and pets, double the price, of course. I just figured colors were bad! Good to know! :) Katie

  • Joyce

    Katie,
    The expensive “safe” salt goes on clearance at PetSmart every Spring for really low prices in case you’re the kind of person who likes to “stock-up.”

    Also, I feel that it is particularly important to use doormats if you have a dog or a baby crawling on your floor as they act as “dustmops” and pick up all the crap that you’ve brought into your home and it often gets right into their mouths by licking, thumb sucking or whatever.

  • http://www.themomwrites.com Prerna

    Hi Tracey, thanks! Yep, it is easy to fall into habits or routines that don’t really let us do much with the time we do have. Glad you liked the tips! :-)

  • http://twitter.com/james_brooks James Brooks

    No problem! Happy blogging over Christmas (or not!)

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