We enjoyed all the traditional Thanksgiving foods; turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry salad etc.
Cammie mentioned the other day that our main Thanksgiving tradition was the food. I decided that wouldn't do and it was time to get another family tradition started. Silly me got distracted shortly after making that decision and consequently woke up Thanksgiving morning without having decide on a tradition for us to start. Since it now was a "morning of" decision, the tradition needed to be something simple to implement.
A few days earlier I had seen a post where the person hung a paper tree on the wall and had each person write what they were grateful for on leaves, then hang their leaf on the tree. This sounded like a good idea so I grabbed a dry erase marker and drew the above, sad looking tree on the sliding glass door. Once the tree was artfully drawn and the leaves were cut out all that was left to gather was some tape and colored pencils.
Everyone wrote what they were most grateful for one their leaves, decorated them if they wanted too, and then hung them on the tree. This is what everyone wrote:
Steve-HEAT (He had arrived home from work and was cold.)
Dawn-My family and beautiful home.
Cammie-Plum sized little Poppy
Tristin-The Spirit that guides us and directs us.
Luke-My family that I love so much.
Grant-Family and a great beard.
Hannah-The Atonement.
I'm hoping that someday our Thanksgiving tree will be covered in many, many leaves.
We all crammed into the Land Cruiser and up into the mountains we drove. There were complaints about cramped quarters, numb feet and Steve's driving but we arrived at our destination safely.
Cammie got out of the car and dry heaved several times (she has been doing a lot of that lately) then we started searching for the right tree. After about forty minutes we hadn't found a tree, not a single one.
We all climbed back into the car and headed to the "fall back tree" we had seen on our drive in. I got out and went to check it out, the kids were getting impatient and weren't very interested in looking any more.
Tristin and Steve followed, but the tree we saw from the road, that had looked nice and full from a distance, turned out to be several trees in a close group.
Admittedly I was done looking at this point and told Steve that we should stop at the corner store on our way home to buy one. He did not appreciate my suggestion and continued to wander through the woods. To his credit he found a tree.
It was the best tree so far, but it was still pretty sad looking. After a few moments of indecision we headed to get the saw. By the time we got to the car Steve was determined to cut down the tree and I was sure it wouldn't do and that we really should buy one.
Steve was sweet and let me have my way.
By the time we got to the corner store none of us really cared what the tree looked like anymore, not even me.
Hungry and cold, we quickly picked out a tree, payed for it and headed home.
This year's tree hunt was not unsucessful though. We all had a good time...well maybe not all of us...Luke grumbled and sighed the entire time, but memories were made and that is the important thing.