A Thankful Tree

This year Brennan is able to comprehend what being thankful means, more than just using good manners and saying "thank you," when someone gives him something or does something for him.


We have also been reading this book (everyday) this month.

No pilgrims or turkeys included, it covers the basic spirit of Thanksgiving; being thankful for the people you love and the things that make you happy.

In comes the Thankful Tree.

Every day we write down at least one thing we are thankful for and hang it on the tree.  It has been the greatest thing!  One of the first things Brennan asks every morning is when we can put more leaves on the tree.

And anything goes, whenever he thinks of something that makes him feel thankful, we put it one the tree.

Last night he was spinning circles in the living room, and wanted to put circles on the tree.  Circles make him happy, so on the tree the went.

I think it will be neat to save the leaves from year to year, and see how many things change and how many stay the same.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

p.s.  I've been changing up the blog, so it's been looking a little crazy the last couple days.  Pardon my mess, I'll be finished soon. : )

Our Thanksgiving Mantel

I was going to preface my mantel pictures, by saying that our mantel this year is pretty much the same as it was last year and then link to that post...but then I went back and checked, and apparently I was a slacker and didn't do a post about our Thanksgiving mantel last year.  Oops!

While I was checking on that, I also noticed that I jumped the gun and started blogging about Christmas on November 4th.  Aren't you proud of me, we're a third through the month and nary a word about it, even though I have been working on some Christmas craftiness!  (That just means look out come December, haha.)

So, back to our Thanksgiving mantel.

Ta da, here it is!

I made the burlap thankful banner last year with some stuff I had hanging around.  The pilgrim people are the first Thanksgiving decorations we owned!  Jason bought them for me, well, let's just say, a lot of years ago.  I had to give both of them a makeover, Mr. Pilgrim was losing his head, and the Mrs. was showing her age.  A little glue, paint, and sealer, and they are both strong and youthful again.  (If only it worked that way for real, right?)

And here is the bottom.

Some little homemade fabric pumpkins.

Come back next tomorrow to see the rest of our Thanksgiving goodies.

Tuesday Tidbits

Are you getting used to me doing weekend recaps on Tuesday?  It's kind of like a tradition now.  Monday just always seems to be such a busy day, and I never seem to find the time to blog.  But I'm ready now, so here we go.

Our Thanksgiving weekend was good.  Besides Jason running to the Shopette a couple of times we didn't leave the house the entire time.  Not that we wanted to since it was COLD and snowing most of the time.



Friday Jason hauled out all the Christmas stuff out of the storage closet.  He We also decided that the big Christmas tree was going up this year, so he hauled that out of the garage.  (If that does make any sense, let me explain.  We have two Christmas trees, a really big fat one, and a really skinny one.  Which one goes up depends on what house and what living room we have each year.  Part of being a military family and moving alot, I guess.)  It took some effort to get the big tree to fit.  We had to move the loveseat to the other side of the room, squish up the dining room table and chairs, and move the desk into the laundry room.  When it came time to assembly the tree, I left some of the branches out of the bottom so it would fit closer to the wall.  Shhh, don't tell anyone.  It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.



I am glad that this tree is really sturdy, and that I put all of the breakable ornaments at the top.  Every time Brennan is in the room, he has to grab and say hello to all the Santas, snowmen, and birds.  He also has to take a swing at all the bells to hear them "ring, ring ring," as he says.  With those noisemakers plus all of my cookie tins he has adopted as drums, we have a Christmas orchestra preformance in the living room every night.

We got most of the rest of the decorations up as well, and I finished the advent tree, but I think I will wait until later in the week to unveil those.  I know you can't wait! : )

Have a great week!

From Our House to Yours

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, The Bal Family