Gratitude Tree

Thanksgiving has never been one of my favorite holidays if I'm being totally honest. I mean, I love the food but there just isn't a lot else to it. This year I really wanted to go deeper and connect with the true meaning of the holiday, this year I wanted to focus on gratitude.

 To that end I am keeping a gratitude journal for the month of November but I also wanted to get my family involved so I decided to try a gratitude tree this year. A gratitude tree is just a vase full of sticks and some paper leaves, very simple to make but lovely! Whenever the mood strikes us throughout the month we take a paper leaf, write down something we are grateful for and tie it on the tree. Above you can see one of my leafs on the left and one Clover wrote herself on the right! (she tells me that it says "my toys")

The gratitude tree has been an instant hit from the moment I put it up on November 1st. My kids absolutely love it and I love hearing the things they are grateful for which include family, pets and treasured toys to name a few. It gives me the warm fuzzies to hear that Eric is grateful for my cooking or that Echo is grateful for mommy so it is really contributing to our happiness as a family to reflect on what we are grateful for and hear what others appreciate about us as well. I can see that this is a new Thanksgiving tradition that is sure to last.