A way to be thankful

by Holly

I LOVE fall, and I have officially entered into the season.

I know labor day was only yesterday; the last day to celebrate summer.  But it was rainy, and the clouds and cooler temperature really got me ready for all the fall colors, fall smells, and fall decorations.

Last year, I decided to make a banner for the season that simply read "thankful."  I hung it above our fireplace.  Then, around thanksgiving, I came up with the idea to cut out little fall leaves on which my kids could write WHAT they were thankful for and then clip it to the banner.

The week before thanksgiving we would gather around the fireplace each night and write out our thanks.  (It was also good writing practice for my kindergartner.)  My kids really liked the idea, so I decided that each year I would cut out some new leaves and we would do it again.  Bam!  A new tradition (I love tradition).  I even saved the leaves from last year (with the year and the name of who wrote it written on the back), and I look forward to bringing them out when I get the banner out of storage for the season.  I think my kids will get a kick out of the fact that they were thankful for things like soup, rain walks, R2D2 and Yoda, and hot fudge sundaes (wait, that was me).

Unfortunately I didn't have a great pic of it on the mantle, so here it is hanging in the hall...

Pretty enough on it's own, but so much better with these precious little leaves...

At the end of the week, it was covered in leaves.  We even had any guests who happened to be over write their own leaf.  Which is where we got "relaxing" from David and "baby Luke" from aunt Ju-Ju.

Such a great tradition!  I am already excited about what it will mean to us this year.

So, I don't know how you spent your holiday weekend...  I spent a lot of time with pretty paper for more banners. 

My family has felt called to go on a missions project to El Salvador in December.  And yes, I mean the whole family.  I don't know if we are nuts or what, but we are taking our kids.  We want them to see another culture, experience other children, and realize what a BIG God we serve.  You can check out our blog here if you are interested.

I have decided to make "thankful" banners with the blank leaves and clips to help raise money for our trip.  Hopefully other families would like to start this tradition, and selling them will help greatly with the overall cost of the trip.

There are some really cute patterns and the colors are fantastic!  I can't wait to get them all done and show you all.

Well, that's how I spent my holiday weekend (plus some swimming, bike riding, and ice cream eating).  Hope you all had a great holiday!

Happy Tuesday!