I think the blogosphere pretty well covered this project last year, but the my house did not get around to it then. This year, however, I’m happy to report The Schmitt House has incorporated a new tradition into the month of November. A thankful tree!
If you’ve never heard of a thankful tree, the premise is simple; You begin with a bare ‘tree’ and add ‘leaves’. On each leaf is a little note about what you (or whoever) is thankful for.
Every day, I force everyone takes a minute and tries to think of one thing they are grateful for. No repeating allowed (my rule).It’s really cute to ask Kennedy what she’s thankful for, she started out with answers like “Tinkerbelle” and “Fruit snacks” but recently she’s shifted her responses to be more people-oriented, like “Papa.” It seems even the two-year-old is getting something out of our new tradition! By the way-, she has yet to say she is thankful for Mommy, but I didn’t really expect it, anyway. I’m have another twenty years before she feels any gratitude toward me.)
As for the construction, it was super easy. I went outside, gathered a bunch of sticks and tied one end together with a ribbon. Then I poured some coffee beans in a vase and stuck my stick bouquet in. For the leaves, I used a circle punch and a hole punch on some left over fall-ish colored card stock. Then I grabbed a bunch of sharpies (also fall-ish themed) and stuck them in the coffee beans too. Easy peasy.
I’m so proud of myself for doing this! Every year I say I’m going to go all out, and really make the house magical for the holidays. And every year it seems we barely get our tree up in time for Christmas Eve, much less set up a mantle, or hang mistletoe… Heck, we are lucky get the all Christmas presents wrapped in time! So this my friends is a new beginning for the holiday season!
It’s a great tradition! (I’ll be sad to see it go!) What holiday traditions have you started? Did you do a thankful tree? Or are there any traditions you’ve been meaning to start, but haven’t gotten around to it? Can you believe turkey day is only about a week away? Where did the time go?
The Schmitt House 