I HATE how Thanksgiving gets skipped and our country goes straight from Halloween to Christmas. I guess there isn’t much money to be made off of thankfulness so the marketers move ahead.
Now, I also realize that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday but a . . . what do you call it? Country holiday? Patriotic holiday? Anyway, it’s celebration is limited to the US of A. Still, the spirit of the day back at it’s first celebration wasn’t being thankful for the United States of America, but having a heart of thanks for what God had provided for the pilgrims – a new home, new friends, food to eat, shelter, etc. I just think it is TRAGIC that we move right along daily forgetting to be thankful for all God has done for us. And THEN we go and have a holiday to help us remember and we still blow right past it to something a little more “me centered” – ironically, Christmas.
So, at The Blue Hutch we have decided to take pause and make November a month where we focus on being thankful. I found this 4 foot tree at Michaels for $4 and some leaves at Target for $.50 and there you go. I am going to use the tree as a pattern to sew something more permanent for the future, but the foam puzzle is serving us just fine for now!
Every night at dinner we have taken a moment to go around and tell what we are thankful for that day. These things are written on a piece of paper which is then connected to a leaf and stuck on our primitive tree. The kids have really gotten into it – KB gives mostly Sunday School answers, but Little has been very thoughtful.
So far some of our responses have included:
Church (KB)
Kirk Kids (Bubba)
Gracie (KB)
My bus (Little)
Burger King (Bubba)
The Gingerbread Man game on Starfall.com (Little)
Fridays (Honey)
JCPenney photo coupons (Me)
What’s fun is that when we sit down for dinner, Little immediately says, “Mom, let’s ask what we are thankful for today!”
I pray this “silly” little tool will help to grow in them a thankful heart. From my mouth to God’s ears!
We celebrated like we have every year. We honeymooned in Boston and ate a lot of chowder so every year we have clam chowder on our anniversary. Then we talked for hours (surprising I know since we are both so introverted) about dreams and plans. SO FUN!
(the camera caught me pushing my glasses up – oops – still it was the best of the five we took!)
