The Thankful Tree

A few years ago while enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at my sister’s home, her daughter and family created a special centerpiece that we called the “Thankful Tree”. The children who were under the age of 12 at that time found a branch outside of Nana’s house and used it as the tree. The young ones in the family drew and cutout from construction paper leaves of all different colors. Everyone was given three leaves and had to write on the leaf what they were thankful for. At dinnertime we all stood up at our places and related to everyone the three things that we were most thankful for (what we wrote on the leaves). I thought it was a fabulous idea and wanted to pass it along to you my faithful readers and followers. I had many branches in my backyard (no bears thankfully around this time) and chose one I thought as an appropriate model. I found some leaf templates on line (see below) and traced them to construction paper which I cut out and threaded different hangers through the leaf so that I was able to place them on the tree. Let the children have a sense of purpose; give them an outlet for their creativity, and a contribution to the dining room table. There is no wrong way or right way to do this, if they want a blue leaf or need help spelling that’s great! Perhaps this will be the start of a lovely family tradition for you. Enjoy and keep healthy and fit by thinking of three things you are most thankful for.