WFMW (again!)- & Giving Thanks...The Thankful Tree

Last year, I submitted a Works For Me Wednesday post following our Thanksgiving gathering.
In it, I spoke about The Thankful Tree. It was the first time I had ever done incorporated this kind of idea into our holiday, and I just loved it so much that I wanted to share...

Only back then, as I said, it was right after Thanksgiving -too late for anyone reading it to try it!



And now, Kelli from There is No Place Like Home is hosting a Giving Thanks celebration!
She is encouraging all of us to tell how we celebrate Thanksgiving, decorating idea, what we are thankful for, and so on!

So...I hope I'm not breaking any rules incorporating both wonderful links into one post this year!

But here is the original post from last November... (and yes, I plan on doing this again!)

(For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in my Dryer!)

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

WFMW - Thankful Tree

I thought I'd share what maybe some of you already do...something I had always heard about but never actually followed through and tried until this Thanksgiving....

The Thankful Tree.

(I know Thanksgiving has come and gone this year, but I still wanted to share this... for something to consider next year- or even to somehow use at Christmas.)

What is a thankful tree? Well, there are several ways to do this, but basically the idea behind it is to have everyone participate in being thankful in a tangible way. And though this works for small family gatherings, as well as large- it's especially nice for large families who don't really have time to go around the table and each say why they are thankful. (Which can be torture to do with the warm aroma of roasted turkey and dressing dancing in your nostrils!)

What I did was very simple. I drew, freehanded, a tree trunk with bare branches on poster board. Then I traced leaves which I drew on construction paper in various colors and cut them out. (Older children can help with this but since my children are still fairly young, this time they mostly just watched.)
As you can see from the picture, it's very, very simple!

On Thanksgiving Day, I taped the tree to the inside of the front door with the leaves, tape and a pen nearby. My girls and I then told each guest as they arrived to please write their name on one leaf and something that they were thankful for this year- then place it on the tree.

My girls really were excited about this! I had told them that it was their job to help me tell family members what to do, and they delighted in seeing the tree take on such beauty as each person added their leaf. I think they understood that the beauty was even more than the colors- but in the act of all of us counting our blessings and our gratitude towards God.

It's been so easy for these kinds of gatherings to be "all about the food".
Not that I've ever had anything against the scrumptious morsels of the holidays! It's not Thanksgiving for me if I don't have cranberry sauce (real berries, please) dressing and a piece of pumpkin pie. (OK, two.)
But it's nice to keep the real meaning of Thanksgiving in their somewhere, where we focus on all the gifts we truly have in our lives.

I've heard of other versions of this tradition, such as each person putting a leaf in a bowl and at the end of the evening or at dinner, a person takes a turn, drawing a name and reading it.
I like this, too.
However, I knew that in our family, the more casual approach would work best. Especially when our gatherings are so large that we can't even sit around the table. Everyone just grabs a chair, sofa or spot on the floor!

I think taking the basic principle and adapting it to your own family gathering is best. The important thing is just to find a way for everyone to be able to express their thankfulness.

Just about every relative that I directed towards the tree seemed pleasently surprised and very happy to add thier name! So though my main motives might have been as a lesson of thankfulness to my own children, I think that it helps all of us to stop and think for a moment on just what we are thankful for most in this life.

I think we've just started a tradition.

WFMW...Interviewing Grandparents

I guess this can be considered a Works For Me Wednesday post! (And head over to Rock in my Dryer for many more Wednesday tips!)

Since I'm fresh off of a weekend visit with mom who is also known affectionately by my children as "Nammy", I wanted to share a home school project that we did...and that can be done by any family, whether you home school or not.

In fact, this idea started as something I wanted to do with our children and the residents of the retirement we visit monthly. I thought it would be fun to have each child in our home school group "interview" a resident about their early memories. A learning experience for the children, and probably something that the older people would enjoy, as well.

We hope to do this next month...but in the meantime, I told my second grader that she should consider interviewing her own Nammy. So, she picked five questions and sat with a paper and pencil, to record her answers.

"What was your favorite toy when you were my age?"
Nammy would think, then list off a few of her very favorites...spawning more memories and stories along the way.

"Did you have any pets?"
Nammy answered this one with a surprise...not a dog or a cat, as granddaughter expected- but a rat! A wild rat that lived in thier attic and came when you whistled!

When my daughter was through with her interview, she wrote a paper based on her answers. She wanted to make it partly fiction since she likes to write this way, so she took the facts and embellished on them. The result was wonderful!

Here is an excerpt: (complete with misspelled words!)
"Right now Ruthy was getting redy too go too the movies with her mom. She was going too see Hide! (Heidi), a Shirlie Temple movie. Her mom payed five cence and they watched the movie together. When it was over, they went home together and then it was time for her faverite job...helping her mom wash the dishes!"

and then later...
"It was time for heer favrite radeo show and she was right buy the radeo and it was alredy on! When the show was over, Ruthy almost forgot abot her pet rat. Everyone looked very hard. They cold't find Snowball the rat anwhere for five days." - based on her grandma's true tale!

So, whether you home school or not, what is important, I think, is encouraging your children to ask questions of their grandparents and great-grandparents. They hold a wealth of information....of history lived first-hand, and hopefully, some extra wisdom.

I remember when I was growing up, I would listen intently as my grandmother told me stories of her growing up years...and I'm so glad I did! Once they are gone from your lives, you cannot get those moments back to learn and glean from their past.

Not to mention that is just plain sweet to sit, cuddled up next to a grandparent, and hear all those stories from his or her own lips... it not only bonds the generations but gives us all a sense of continuity.
And a sense of old-fashioned comfort in this fast-paced life in which we all live.