Our Thanksgiving Tree!

I attended a woman's get together where family traditions were talked about and shared a couple weeks ago. It got me thinking about family traditions and the ones Adam and I wanted to start doing with our kiddos since they are finally getting old enough to understand special days. We started with Thanksgiving. (I'll post about our new Christmas traditions later) We decided to make and decorate a McManus Thanksgiving tree. Daddy and the boys went hunting in "our" forest for the perfect branches for our little tree. I dusted off a wedding present we have never used and placed the branches in it. Then I traced the boys hands and spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME cutting out a million little hands.

I looked at Adam at one point while I was cutting little hands out. And said "There might be a year when I get lazy and our Thanksgiving tree is decorated with little leaf cutouts instead of little hands." But the boys LOVE IT! (By the way why don't I have left handed scissors I mean how long have I been left handed??!!! grrrrr)
We sit down every morning during breakfast and dinner and make a Thanksgiving hand. The boys decorate one side with crayons, markers, and every once in awhile stickers. Then I write what they are thankful for. We have been thankful for our beds, our toys, our puppies, our new house, etc. Simple things but they are definitely getting it. I look forward to the next years when we continue this new tradition.