Kids family tree placemat games ideas

My kids have been  dieing to be able to use their family tree mats, poor babies, their mamma has been so much busy doing so many things, she hasn't had time to put her ideas into action for a long time.

I finally got around to doing it, and I must say, I am pretty proud of the final result!
Here it is:
A world map where they can point where their ancestors were born, lived or got married.
Since my husband's family was established in USA for at least 4 generations,  and mine was all from the same area in Italy, I created 2 games.
This is for the American side:

 Here is the version for the Italian side.

Family names word puzzle.

These are the ones I already created for my kids, and I am going to publish in the next few days.
Once I receive these prints, I will match them with each of my kids family tree placemats and then laminate them, so that they can use washable dry erase markers to play the games
A couple more ideas:

Match the couple game, where the child needs to trace a line to connect each husband to his wife.

A family traits matching game, where the kid connects his eyes, nose, mouth, hair etc to his parents and grandparents, to see who looks more like him.

What ideas have you come up with to keep your kids entertained at dinner/lunch time and at the same time nourish their love for their family history?

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Interview a loved one this thanksgiving weekend.

I don't know how many of you will be reading my blog today, as you will be probably running around for the last thanksgiving dinner shopping or will be stuck in the kitchen cooking everything...
Just in case you should find the time to sit for a moment, and stumble upon this post, I want to challenge you with something you might have not thought about.
Most of us are going to be in contact with at least a family member, either in person or even on the phone.
We have a nice long holiday weekend ahead, why don't we use a fraction of it to interview a loved one?
Choose whoever you feel like: grandma, dad, your child,your sibling, even a dear friend or neighbor.
Just choose to take the time, and let the person you want to interview know that it is very important to you, and you would really appreciate if he/she would sit with you for a little bit to answer the question in your interview.
You can use a tape recorder, a laptop, even just paper and a pen, to record everything, it doesn't matter, as long as it is recorded. You might also want to take some pictures.
You can do it on thanksgiving, or also on Black Friday, instead of using most of your time after those special deals for those things that right night you feel like you MUST have, but that will not last forever.
Getting to know that special person a little more, getting to write his/her story is a treasure that will last forever, something both you and the person interviewed will be thankful for.
Life doesn't always go the way we plan, and  sometimes we loose someone all of a sudden and we realize that we could have spent more time with them, getting to know them better, told them I love you more often...
Take the time now, let them know that they are so important you want to know more about them, and you want to preserve their memory.
Any minute spent interviewing a special person in your life is a minute well spent, one you will never be sorry for.
In case you don't know where to start from with the interview, there are many online tool that have questions you can ask, here is some you might find useful:
Storymaps
How to interview a relative
Fifty questions for Family history interview
Hope this helps!