Yay! It’s November! The month that is so easily overlooked. Halloween is down and now Santa, reindeer, jingle bells, and snowflakes are filling the shelves. Wait!!! Where did the leaves, cornstalks, and fall colors go? What about the turkeys, scarecrows, and cute uncarved pumpkins? Thanksgiving is becoming nothing more than a day when we stuff our faces with good food and then rush off to shop, shop, and shop some more.
I have to make it clear, I’m 100% okay with all the Christmas cheer! I love the feeling that comes with the Christmas trees and snowman, and the longer we can celebrate and think about our Savior’s birth, the better. But I’m not a fan of Thanksgiving getting overshadowed, letters to Santa being written, and wish lists starting without any thought of a grateful list. Being grateful is something that deserves a good solid fully observed holiday! Taking the time to be grateful is essential to our mental and emotional wellbeing. It’s just healthy for the soul.
So this year our family is starting a tradition – The Grateful Tree. We chose grateful instead of thankful because we liked its definition better, “feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness.” (New Oxford American Dictionary)
This month we are going to fill our grateful tree with grateful leaves. We are excited to have something visual on our wall that reminds us to think about our countless blessings. In the month of November, every time we have a thought of gratitude, we’ll jot it down and add it to the tree! Our fall tree is going to gain leaves (a lot hopefully) instead of lose them!
Last night during our Family Home Evening, we made 5 goals as a family to help us keep gratitude as our focus this month. Each member of the family came up with one goal. Well, all except for the almost 3 year old who was sleeping – thankfully! (Well, looky there, I get to add a leaf! “I’m grateful for sleeping almost 3 year olds”:-))
OUR GRATEFUL GOALS:
- Focus on things we are grateful for in our prayers.
- Say thank you when someone does something for us or gives us something.
- Write in a thankful journal everyday (yikes! I need to get on this one.)
- Write a thank you note to someone.
- When something is going wrong or when we’re frustrated, think about the things we are grateful for to help us feel better.
Each week at Family Home Evening, we are going to talk about how our week went. How did we do? What are some experiences we had? Was it easy or hard to be grateful?
Simple. Easy. Fun. Meaningful. I’m in!
We printed the leaves on fun bright colored paper and laminated them with our handy-dandy laminating machine so we can reuse them year after year. I got some brown postal paper (for the trunk), some wet erase markers to write on the leaves, and some hanging putty, and just like that we have a grateful tree!
My oldest made the tree and my other girls helped me cut out the leaves. It was fun to see it all come together!
Now it’s time to fill up our tree with grateful leaves!
If you want to create a grateful tree for your family, click on the images below for FREE printables of the grateful leaves. There is a variety of options: different sizes, leaves with lines (for handwriting practice), and leaves without lines. Find what works best for you and your family!
Have fun and Happy November! I hope it’s full of cornstalks, scarecrows, and grateful leaves!
Real Imprints Grateful Tip: Teaching our kids to be grateful can be challenging. The Blessings Jar: A Story About Being Thankful and The Thankful Book are two adorable books that make learning about gratitude fun for kids!
-Lindsey
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