THINGS TO DO: Make A Tree of Thanks

Several years ago when the holidays approached, I obsessed about the lack of tradition in my children's lives. We don't have the cornerstones of religion or a humongous family to draw upon in celebrating the holidays. Since I didn't want my children to believe the holidays were all about consumption - of turkey and shopping malls - I consciously stepped in and created some traditions.

Out of this pondering, thankfully, a few man made traditions stuck. One was the Tree of Thanks.

Each Thanksgiving we gather up branches from our backyard, and assemble them in a bouquet. We decorate the branches with pine cones, and then cut out paper leaves to hang on the tree. We each write what we are thankful for on leaves as thoughts occur to us, and hang our leaves on the branches. On Thanksgiving we read through all our plenitudes of thanks.

The results make a great centerpiece to our home. It is so large compared to our square footage, that it tends to grab people as they walk by making sure that one is recording thanks. Due to this feature, Geoff is especially thankful when we can take it down.

Happy Thanksgiving! Let's play some BINGO!