Gratitude

Well ... It's the night before Thanksgiving ... and all thru the house ... Splara and Dawson are upstairs. They gave our old dog Rocky a bath before supper at a dog place and have him with them keeping him warm (he's the chaparone). Bill's been reading and Heather is playing the piano. He was playing the guitar and they were singing together earlier.

I was going to just put a link to what I posted last year, but didn't do it right, so I'm copying and pasting some of it in here and writing more. I like the Thanksgiving Tree idea, but where I usually put it is now covered in framed photographs, so this'll be the first year in a long time that I've not put it up. But like my 'first's of spring' chart I've posted on before - by now, it's so ingrained, we automatically think about it.

We'll see if someone says anything tomorrow ... I've got an old one on cardboard in the garage somewhere I could pull out ...

We're going to have a house full tomorrow. Heather and Bill (so cool that she married a Lavender) flew in from Texas last eve. Twas a beautiful day today, but tomorrow we may wake to it snowing, or soon to, and Travis and Sarah, with her parents will be driving here in the morning, maybe in snow (1 1/2 hr drive away). Then our close friends Jim and Marty with their 4 grown kids will be coming. So I was just emptying the dishwasher and going to cut up the bread to dry overnight for the stuffing. Monte's in the greenhouse washing the turkey and getting it ready to brine. We got a BIG one this year!
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I often get frustrated at the Thanksgiving table when I ask what people are thankful for. Usually someone says something silly and then everyone else does. So now on a large piece of paper I draw a tree, with lots of branches and no leaves, to hang on the wall. I cut a variety of leaves from colored construction paper and leave them sit on a counter with a pen and glue stick. If this is done a week or so before Thanksgiving everyone who comes to our house can write something they're thankful for on a leaf and glue it on the tree. Then by Thanksgiving, we've had time to think beyond tangibles like food, family, God, friends, pets etc to intangibles like Truth, Love, integrity and then beyond to firemen, police, doctors ...

Two gals had heard me talk about it several years ago at MOPS and brought examples of their trees. One drew the tree skeleton and they ripped brown paper bag pieces and glued them on, filling in the tree. Pieces were loose and it looked like bark. Another gal had gathered lots of colored aspen leaves and color copied them to cut out for the leaves. And I think my one on cardboard in the garage is with real aspen leaves we pressed dry.

Last year I wrote 'gratitude' instead of 'thanks'. It's just something I'd been pondering ... It's an 'at the heart level' thing. Gratitude could change the world!