2006
I'm not forgetting my dear husband who drives me crazy, and my other two lovely boys who are growing up so fast too! We won't have any family visiting us this year; neither are we traveling to visit them. But that's ok, we can have a lovely Thanksgiving with just us. It will be Julian's first, so I will be sure to take pictures. We are also planning to get our family portrait done at Sears--yes, on Thanksgiving Day. We did that last year, and it worked so well. There were no mad shopping crowds to contend with, and we could be relaxed and have fun! I will put the turkey in the oven beforehand so it can cook, and then we can eat later after we get back home.
The kids are off from school today, so I hope to have them help me clean up the house and maybe do a little decorating. We want to put up the Christmas tree with just the white lights on it, and then use a few thanksgiving/fall decorations. Last night someone who lives in town called and said they had a box of food they wanted to give us! Truman received a turkey from his work, but the food box had things like rolls, wheat bread, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, fresh veggies, a pumpkin pie, and then there was a pack of pretty holiday napkins and a gorgeous little centerpiece for the table! The centerpiece was obviously handmade and very nicely done---a clear glass decorative plate with an orange candle hot-glued in the center, then they glued silk leaves, acorns, nuts and fake berries around the bottom of the candle---we just love it! Julian's PT had also gotten us a box of food from her company yesterday, with things like eggs, gravy, potatoes, noodles, apples, and various other things (mostly canned goods). I am just amazed at the generosity of area companies and individuals! It does help make up for the rude reception we got when we moved here and certain people tried to literally throw us off our property (long story in my family website, so I won't retell it here). I like to share with others too, so I am thinking of some things we can do to help others as well.
Thanksgiving Day, November 23rd. At the kids’ request, I put up our Christmas tree yesterday. We did not decorate it---well, not with ornaments at least. We will do that later. But it has white lights on it--it's a pre-lit tree. Last winter I put it in our addition wrapped in plastic (and later I made a cloth cover for it after the cats ripped the plastic). So it was already standing, and I just unwrapped it and brought it into the livingroom. The kids put their snowmen and their holiday M&M toys underneath it, and kept asking to decorate the tree. I said I wanted to wait until after thanksgiving for the ornaments, I just wanted the pretty green with lights to cheer up the room for today. And that is when I had a wonderful idea!
We could make the tree a "Thanksgiving Tree" for today! Last night we took regular 8x11 paper and cut each sheet into quarters. We folded each quarter-sheet in half. Then each person took 4 small folded pieces, and wrote inside each piece something that they are grateful for. We each signed our name to what we wrote too. Making sure all the pieces were still folded closed, we stuck them in the branches of the tree (on the front of the tree). The kids got into it so much that they wanted to write more than 4 papers each! So we kept on writing. I helped prompt Jamie a little bit, mostly helping him spell words (he's in kindergarten).
At the end of Thanksgiving dinner, one of us pulled the "thanksgiving papers" off the tree one at a time, and we took turns reading them out loud with the writer’s name. We did this until all papers were read. It was REALLY great! I think I will bundle the thanksgiving papers and put them away with our Christmas cards at the end of the holidays. We enjoyed this so much we've decided to make it a family tradition!
