We’re doing something new during November. I’m calling it “the thankful project.”
My inspiration came from this post by Emily Rose. I don’t know how I came across it, but it’s been stuck in my head for the past couple of years. I was originally going to use a tree like Emily, but after this fiasco, I decided to alter my plans.
I found this leaf in Ruby Tuesday’s parking lot. I have a bajillion leaves in my yard, but I just grabbed this one because it spoke to me. {or maybe that was my stomach?}
Then I grabbed several colors of construction paper – yellow, orange, & red – made a stack, and traced the shape of the leaf on the top paper.
I was able to get 7 leaf shapes on 1 piece of paper and I cut them all out at the same time. Yea for sharp scissors!
Here’s my final stack of leaves. Such a pretty shape, right? That’s what you get from God’s beautiful nature!
You may notice Anna Grace behind this stack of leaves. Remember the pic I shared on facebook of her working on her leaf paper? This is what I was doing during her crafty time. I know – she’s a cutie.
Every day, we each take a leaf and write the date & 1 thing we’re thankful for. But it has to be day-specific. So, for example, on Nate’s birthday, I might have said something about being thankful for my little 1 year old. But we aren’t allowed to read each other’s leaves until Thanksgiving. Because that would be cheating. Of course.
This is our first official Thanksgiving tradition. I’m pretty sure this will be something we do every year. I’m planning to save all the leaves, and since we write the date on them, when we look back on the leaves in, say, 5 years, they will be like a little snapshot into what we did every day in November of 2012.
A definite plus: doing this has been a great way to encourage thankfulness in Anna Grace. Oh yeah, and it’s working pretty well for her parents too!
How about you? How do you encourage thankfulness in your home? Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?
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I really love this idea and that you’re able to save the “leaves” for years to come. I bookmarjed this for next year
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Yay for you, what a great idea! I love everything about it – the pretty leaves, items specific for the day, individually and secretly done, and preserved each year. Thanks for sharing!
Great idea, Christa. I’ve been wanting to do a thankful tree…perhaps I’ll do this instead. Thanks for sharing.
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Heehee! I was going to do one of those thankful trees too. But first off I cut my strips of paper too narrow so ended up having to cut out eggs instead of circles (I was using a die cut from the media center). BUt if hung upside down they could look like leaves, right???? Sorta. Then I gathered branches for my jar and decided to make it extra pretty by filling it with acorns. Um, damp acorns because it had rained that day and I had-to-do-this-right-now! It looked so nice! Within a week my acorns were growing. SO yeah, the tree went. But I didn’t want to lose my leaves, right? So now they’re hanging from my ceiling with white thread. Falling leaves. Or eggs. Whatever. We’re thankful
And yes, we’re also dating ours and planning to keep them, but we read them as we go 
hahaha!! oh yes, I have the lovely must-do-it-this-minute-itis too. glad it worked out in the end and you still have your leaf-eggs!
Love this Christa! So each one of you are writing a leaf – 3 for each day? Great idea to to save them and read them in 5 years or 20
did you cut A.G. hair? it looks so cute!
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yes, 3 for each day! and I did cut her hair. I think it looks so cute short, so I just keep cutting it.