Our "Thankful Tree"

Since we started this blog a little over a year ago, we have taken the opportunity to share some of our family traditions at each of the major holidays. As Thanksgiving approached, and I reflected on past holidays documented on our blog, i.e. Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, I realized that we had few Thanksgiving traditions that weren't related to food. (Since holiday recipes will be the theme woven throughout next years blog, I won't share those traditional recipes here.) As a result, I decided we needed to establish some sort of tradition to commemorate this first feast of Thankfulness. Although we spend the whole month of November learning about the history of Thanksgiving, and making crafts and treats related to the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians, I felt like there needed to be something we did each year with a little deeper meaning. After talking with Nick, we decided to create a "Thankful Tree" on our wall with leaves made out of everyone's hands. (Really original, I know.) We introduced the "Thankful Tree" in Family Home Evening along with the theme of having "Daily Thanksgiving." During Family Home Evening we made exactly enough hands for us to take turns placing hands on our tree every night between Halloween and Thanksgiving. When it was your turn to place a hand, you had to write something you were thankful for on it and place it on the tree. In order to help the kids really think about what they were thankful for, we made it a rule that you couldn't repeat something someone had already listed. The kids loved the tree and as a result were extra mindful of things they were thankful for each day in their prayers. Really, it helped our entire family to remember our many blessing all month long.

Here is a photo of our family "Thankful Tree". (Hopefully on a less busy year I will get the time to make a cloth or felt tree that looks a little less ghetto--but for our first year, our construction paper tree will have to do.)




Here are the things our family members listed:


Nicholas:
A living prophet--Thomas S. Monson
Our Holy Scriptures
A House
Friends
Good Food to eat

Jamie:
My Children--Madison, Spencer, and EmmaLee
Husbands and father who hold the priesthood
The Holy Ghost
Our new baby Mason
Jesus Christ

Madison:
My Family
The Church
The Temple
My Grandma and Grandpa
My Brothers

Spencer:
Treats
Cows, Sheep, and other animals
Balloons, Trains, and Toys
Watching movies together
Playing games together

EmmaLee:
"Mamma"
Stories
Shoes
Chocolate "Mult" (Milk)
Pens and drawing pictures