Our Family Thankful Tree

  We are welcoming the month of Thanksgiving with open arms!  I remember reading somewhere that a family started a thankful tree each year on November 1st and added to it each day until Thanksgiving.   So with this thought in my head I set out to "create" a Thankful Tree for my family!  I told my children about this project and they were excited to get it going!  We chose some fall colored card stock to write our notes on and set out to find the "right" branches to create our tree with.  On our nature walk we also decided that we would need some fall leaves to add around our tree.  This walk was one to be remembered!

  We chose a clean path through the woods to find the perfect branches, but much to our dismay all we could find was pine limbs.  So this meant that we needed to go down a path full of brush through to a row of nice hardwood trees.  My daughter decided that this path was much to tall for her to walk in and that she needed to be carried.  Being the brilliant mom that I am, I came armed on this walk with a cell phone in my back pocket, my house keys hanging out of my front pocket and a container to put our nature finds in.  Notice I said, my keys hanging out of my front pocket.  

  So, we find a path that has been trampled by the deer and follow it to the line of hardwood trees and we pick up leaves and find the "perfect branches" for our Thankful Tree!  We started back and I realize as I am carrying my daughter that I no longer have my keys!! Oh my!  We turn back and search for my keys with no luck.  We return to the house to make sure that my forgetful mind hasn't forgotten that I left them at the house, but no luck there either.  So, we back track on both paths and find no keys.  My dad comes to help in our search, but finds no keys! My husband comes home and they take another trip down the path to see if they can find my keys and what do you know my husband finds them in a place that none of us had looked before!  Guess I didn't remember that we had walked that far!! 

  By the time they arrived back at the house I had begun to put our Thankful Tree together.  We used a glass vase, a cylinder Styrofoam piece, moss, branches and leaves.  We pushed the branches into the Styrofoam and covered the Styrofoam with moss and leaves and put it down into the vase.  We discussed with the children how important it is to be thankful for all of the wonderful things that God has created and for all of the blessings that he has bestowed upon us.  Each day we will add things to the tree for which we are thankful for.  I cut out some small pieces of card stock and attached string to them so that we could hang our thanks from the tree.  We will also ask guests if they want to add to our thankful tree.  When the month is over we plan to read the notes that each of us wrote to remind us of all that God has provided for us to be thankful for.  This is the month of Thanksgiving, and our first note is that we are thankful for our wonderful Lord and Savior!