Here is a quick, easy, and fun way to count your blessings as a family.
What you need:
- Container (old flower pot, vase, jar, bottle, whatever you’ve got on hand)
- Rocks (They don’t need to be pretty.)
- A stick from your backyard with small twigs/branches sticking out from it. (Not so big that it will topple the container, but big enough that you have plenty of places to tie your leaves on.) My kids loved combing our backyard in search of the stick.
- Leaf patterns printed on colored paper (I searched “leaf outlines” on Google images.) Or just sketch some simple leaf outlines by hand on construction paper.
- hole punch
- ribbon, yarn, or string of any kind
- Magic markers or crayons
What you do:
- Anchor the stick in the container with some rocks.
- Cut out your leaf outlines. (I did this part ahead of time just to keep it quick.)
- Each day, or once every few days, or however often you’d like, at mealtime, have each member of your family choose a colored paper leaf and write down on it something for which they are thankful. My 5-year old chose to draw pictures and I wrote the words for her. Have everyone write their initials and the date on the back of their leaf.
- Punch a hole in the endof the leaf.
- Loop yarn or string through the hole, and tie to your branch.
Voila. Now you have a pretty table decoration that doubles as a reminder to count your blessings!
We had fun starting ours tonight at dinner and sharing our blessings out loud with the whole family. I think we’ll continue to add leaves at least through Christmas. My son had the idea of keeping it up throughout the year. If we decide to do that, it would be nice to take off the old leaves as they are replaced with new ones and save them to look back at each year at Thanksgiving.
There are so many variations on this simple tree. I’d love to hear any ideas you have!
Blessings to you and your family this Thanksgiving,
