Gift Basket Ideas for a Boating Family

For the boating family on your list a gift basket can be created to include everyone.

A variety of containers can be used to hold gifts such as a cooler, duffel bag, backpack or a folding cart.

Card games, board games, audio tapes, personalized t-shirts, CD, DVD, are gifts to consider for the boating family. A gift certificate for a restaurant in their boating area could be included. Books on activities or places to visit in their area can help a family plan their next boating vacation.

For more ideas for boaters - captain, galley cooks, boating mom, visit Gift Ideas for Boaters

Happy Thanksgiving Boaters

Happy Thanksgiving to our boating neighbors in the USA.

Visitors to Sidney, BC, Vancouver Island this weekend will enjoy the Lighted Ships Parade passing by the end of our main street, Beacon Avenue. The event is scheduled for November 24, 2007 and coincides with a full moon. It's always a delight to watch the lighted ships and appreciate the hours boaters spend to decorate their vessels. Boaters and non-boaters alike enjoy the Lighted Ships.

Here's an article outlining craft ideas for Thanksgiving.

Teaching your Kids to be Thankful 

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach your kids about being thankful. Here are some ideas to teach your children how to appreciate the blessings in their lives.

Giving Thanks Placements

The goal of this craft is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things your children are thankful for. Cut photos from magazines, or print some photos from your computer. Older children can write captions under the photos or draw their own. Be sure to put the child’s name and the year on it.

If you make this collage from two standard letter size pieces of construction paper taped side-by-side, you can take the completed collage to a copy shop when you’re done and have it laminated. It then becomes a placemat that you can use every Thanksgiving for years to come.

Thankful Paper Chain

Another way to remind your children of their blessings is to create a paper chain. This is similar to a regular paper chain – where you cut strips of paper and connect them together as loops, but there’s one difference. You write on the strips of paper before you connect them. Write the things you are thankful for with your children. For instance, “Grandma plays games with me” or “My teacher is nice.” The fun part of this activity is to make the chain as long as possible – showing all your blessings. If you’d like to keep this up during Christmas, just use green and white paper.

Thanksgiving Tree

This is another take on the idea above and works really well if you have several kids in the family. Get each child to trace their hand on yellow, red, or brown construction paper. Cut out the hand shapes and write (or have the child write) what they are thankful for on the hand shape. Cut a tree trunk shape out of brown construction paper. Glue it on a large piece of poster board. Let the kids add their hand shapes as leaves above the tree trunk, turning it into a beautiful fall colored tree.

Thankful Book

This idea is similar to the others, except it’s more of a keepsake. Purchase a photo album or scrapbook kit and make a “blessings” theme. Add photos of loved ones, including stories about why they are special to you. Also, include pages of your favorite foods, favorite stories, favorite movies and all the other things that make you happy. Any time your kids feel down, you can open your blessing book to see all the reasons you have to be happy – and thankful for the blessings in your life.

Wishing you a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Audio Books and Boating Children

Occupying children and grandchildren while boating calls for creativity. I find it helpful to offer a variety of activities suited to the age of the child.



A quiet time set aside each day allows everyone time to renew and refresh themselves for the balance of the day. Reading is an excellent quiet time activity as are audio books to be enjoyed individually or as a family.



A variety of audio books for all ages can be purchased and downloaded online, loaded into an MP3 player for individual use or burned onto a CD for everyone to enjoy.



I use the following site for a large selection of audio books Kids - Young and Old