Thanksgiving 2003 we started a new tradition. Each person at dinner would get three little leaves on which to write what he or she was thankful for that year. The reverse side is for the name and year. We put them in a bowl and pass them around the table. Each person would remove a few leaves and read them to everyone.

As we prepared for this Thanksgiving, the boys and I hung the leaves from previous years on our Thanksgiving Tree. The boys were so excited to decorate the tree and they talked about what they were planning to write on their leaves this year. What a blessing it was to hear them chatter away about their thankfulness!

I believe the tree has changed our Thanksgivings forever. When Colin awoke this morning, the first thing he did was shout, "HURRAY! IT'S THANKSGIVING!!!!!" We added 15 new leaves to our tree this year and spent some time after lunch reading all the leaves from the last two years, remembering who was with us, laughing at some of the sweet answers the children gave and fondly remembering those we shared our days with.