The Turkeyless Thanksgiving of 2015

I blogged earlier this week about not doing the traditional turkey dinner this year. I'm tired, I've got a bad cold, and I just wanted one year to enjoy my family. Also, Gabe worked all day, and it just isn't Thanksgiving without him.

So, Ella and I made a few crafts, and worked on some pieces for Winter Remembrance while we waited for Gabe to come home from work. I was determined to at least have dinner as a family.

When Gabe did get home, I served up a delicious pizza (which was actually homemade, and not frozen, like I was previously planning to do.). The toppings were grilled chicken, pepperoni, peppers and cheese. It was incredibly yummy!!!!

Afterwards, we watched Peanuts movies and took silly family pictures. It was by far the most low-key Thanksgiving we've had, but it was probably the best one.

And one of just us...

Today, Gabe had to work again. Ella and I visited our local Humane Society, with the purpose of seeing Toby the tuxedo cat. (because I've got a soft spot in my heart for the tuxies)

Hope your Thanksgiving was filled with lots of love and family!!!

Gratitude Tree

I saw the idea for this on a few blogs, and decided that in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I needed to give this a try. Because, besides handprint turkeys, how many Thanksgiving crafts do you get to do with your kids?

We started off with a piece of posterboard. I drew a tree on the posterboard, and then cut it out. And yes, I saved the extra pieces of posterboard. Have I mentioned yet how cheap and stingy I am? :)

We put the year on the bottom. Ella drew a long-eared owl, because, what's a tree without an owl?

We stuck the tree up on our living room wall. I had some awesome leaf cutouts that my choir director was going to throw out after a church party. I begged him not to, because I had this project in mind.

I had her write her name at the bottom of a leaf and write one thing she was thankful for. Of course, I made sure I did one too, and Gabe will do a couple tomorrow. We plan to continue this until Thanksgiving and then go through our leaves, one by one, thanking God for all He has given us.

 

I'll be posting more pictures of our Gratitude Tree as the weeks tick by toward Thanksgiving!