"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life;
to put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived." ~Henry David Thoreau

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Our Thankful Tree

I love Thanksgiving time. And if it weren't for the days becoming extremely short, I would REALLY love November. There is something magical about the kick-off to the holidays. When I was a kid I loved the Thanksgiving crafts and the "feast" that our class would always have right before school let out for the holiday. I loved making pilgrim hats out of construction paper. I love the hand shaped turkeys. I love it all.

This week for Family Home Evening we talked about the holiday to the kids. Earlier that day I packed the kids up and we went to the Library to get some books. I about cleaned them out of Thanksgiving picture books and we have been reading them each night of the month so far. The kids favorite right now is "Arthur's Thanksgiving".

To start of family night, we read a book all about the first Thanksgiving and why and how we celebrate it today. Then we made our thankful tree. Ethan and Hailey helped me sketch and color a big trucnk with branches, and then we wrote down a few things we are thankful for and stuck them on the tree. We hung the tree on the back of the door and each day we've been adding to it with more leaves. By the time Thanksgiving gets here we hope to have it covered in pretty leaves symbolizing things we are thankful for. I love holiday traditions and this is one of our favorites!






3 comments:

Bel said...

What a cute thankful tree, it's such a great idea. I will have to copy you in on it when Bri is a little older. I have been out of town and I come to check the blogs and realize you are prego again!! Crazy news but nevertheless super exciting so congratulations Mama!! Your babies are all so beautiful so keep them coming, hehe!!

Joey and Nettifer said...

What a fun mama you are! Love the ideas about the books - to bad I can't check any out because you have them all :) I love the thankful tree!

Farmer Mama said...

I am so stealing this idea! I love it