The Thankful Tree

I'm not so into this Pinterest craze lately. I got on Pinterest the other day to find a chocolate cake recipe and an hour or so later I emerged from the Pinter-vacuum feeling like a total failure of a human being because I've never made a fireplace mantel out of pallet wood that I salvaged myself or repurposed one of my husband's old dress shirts into an infinity scarf.
If you've never Pinterested then you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. (and way to go, you!  You aren't missing anything.)

But back before I got over the Pinterest sensation, I did come across a winner. The Thankful Tree.
And I will say that it is one of our family's favorite new traditions. This has been our second year of filling up a thankful tree and the kids love it. Eden remembered doing it last year and was really excited to start it again at the beginning of November.
This year was a little more difficult scrounging up those tree branches as the trees had all grown a bit taller a year later! (eh-hem...seriously, who WAS that crazy white foreign lady out there pulling perfectly good branches off of trees?!?!)

I figure starting a Thankful tree tradition with kids ranging from 1-4 was a great idea. Because really, we can only go up from here. This year Eden graduated from being thankful for her Cinderella movie last year to being thankful she can sing and dance this year. I'd say she's starting to grasp what we're going for here.




Salem...well, he's got a ways to go. But again, some day when he's 17 surely he'll look back on our 2012 Thankful tree cards and totally get a kick out of being "thankful for monkeys and tigers."

Then there's this boy...

 who I'm sure is thankful for grapes, ritz crackers, and moments that people forget to shut the bathroom door and he gets to play in the potty. He can't voice it yet, but I'd guarantee those would be on his Thankful tree cards. Meanwhile, his name is written on several of our cards of things that we're thankful for!

Plus, it's a total conversation starter. "So, um...why do you have dead tree branches in a vase on your dining room table?" Ahhh yes...well, lemme tell you about the One whom we owe all our thanks.

So each year we'll look back on the previous year's Thankful tree cards and see how the Lord has continued to provide, prepare, and lead our family through all sorts of exciting, uncertain, happy, sad, and wonderful circumstances.

As we put up our Christmas tree the other day, Salem exclaimed, "Wow Mommy!! That's a REALLY BIG thankful tree!!"
Truly, son! God has blessed us so much we could fill a Christmas tree with thankful cards too.