The Thanksgiving Tree

Landon's tree. The trunk is made of a cutout of his hand (which he cut all by himself)! I did not help with his leaves, he came up with the things he was most thankful for all by himself.

Claire's tree...she spent several minutes thinking through her options before putting the most important ones on the leaves. She often inspires me, and reminds me, to slow down and look around before putting things in writing (or to memory in my case).

My children get a whole week off from school and activities for Thanksgiving. Imagine my surprise (hahaha) when they were at each other's throats this morning before we could even get ready for church. So being the crafty Mommy that I am (another hahaha), I started them on a project. The end results were so heartfelt and sweet, I had to share. I also must note that both kiddos were sharing and visiting, nicely, throughout this crafting session. We even had a discussion about Jesus, and the Trinity and just what all that means. Although I'm pretty sure most of that went right over their heads, they listened intently and with such concentration that they quit working with their hands and just sat and stared at me! (Or maybe I'm just that boring of a storyteller!) Anyway, I love what my children are thankful for...and if I could make a Thanksgiving Tree, I would have each of their names on a leaf, along with my wonderful husband and all their attributes that make us a wonderful family. How truly blessed we are...

Thankful

It is almost Thanksgiving...

but the Christmas decorations are already out in stores,

and the The Big Toy Book's pages are already marked by hopeful kiddos,

Christmas music is on the radio,

and we are anxiously making the list of things to buy and do before that fateful day.

But what about Thanksgiving? This out of the mouth of my almost 5-year-old. Why don't we celebrate Thanksgiving like Halloween or Christmas? Why don't we make crafts and talk about it alot? I didn't have an all-knowing answer for him; which he was expecting, by the way. But he cut me off before I could get the first word out of my mouth. "Mommy? I'm thankful for you and Daddy and Claire and our house and food." Thank goodness someone remembers what holiday comes first...and why we should celebrate it!

Branson Trip 2010

The cousins are ready for bed...but not even close to being sleepy!

The grandchildren with Gram.

It's not often one is so lucky to get all of the family together in one place, for an extended time, and share good memories. But we got lucky the first weekend in November when we met Gram, Poppy, Unkie, Staci and Thurston in Branson. Everyone arrived Friday evening to a condo on Table Rock Lake. The big surprise for the kiddos that evening: Uncle Frank came along! We had dinner and stayed up late playing and chatting. Saturday morning everyone woke up early...some to shop, others to play. After lunch, the whole group headed to Silver Dollar City. Although our family are "old pros", several in our group had not been, or it had been a LONG time since they had experienced SDC. We rode some rides, had some funnel cakes and enjoyed a train ride. Everything was Christmas themed, which was the point of our venture to Branson. SDC lights up EVERYTHING, and it's absolutely spectacular! The train ride stopped not to train robbers (like usual) but to the telling of the Christmas story. And The Flooded Mine (a ride) had Christmas trees among the baldknobbers (hee hee!). The best part was the huge Christmas tree that lit up in time to music, and the lighted Christmas parade. All the children smiled and laughed while the characters paraded by, and even the adults seemed to be in the spirit! Sunday morning was departure time, and everyone went back to their normal lives. Thank you to my parents and to my brother and his family for taking time out of the hectic schedule that is life and being together. Those are the times our children will remember, and those are the stories I want to tell them so they never forget!