our thankful tree

When I started my blog in February, one goal was to start some new family traditions. I'm not really a tradition type of mom; I'm more like a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of mom. Traditions involve planning, and well...you know me.

But when I ran across this idea on Naomi's blog, I just had to start this tradition for my family...the Thankful Tree! Next year we will do our Thankful Tree leading up to Thanksgiving, but I didn't want to miss a whole year so we're doing ours now.

Here's the before:


(Thank you Pier 1 for making decorating virtually fool-proof).


I had these grandiose visions of snapping pictures of little hands writing on cards, working hard, lost in thought, so many things to be thankful for.

The vision is always better than the reality, isn't it?

I did get a picture of the Tiny Tornado climbing up onto the table and nearly knocking over the tree, but that wasn't really what I was going for.


Every year when it's time to take down the Thankful Tree, I'm going to save all the little cards and put them in an envelope with the year on it. I think it will be so fun to look back.

And here's the finished product...I love it!


If you've done a blog post on any holiday traditions you love, please link me to it! I'm always looking for ideas! :-)