Being Thankful

Jackie and I did a Thanksgiving craft/activity to help her focus on what she is thankful for this year.  Since I totally put off doing this until the eve of Thanksgiving, we improvised and used materials we already had at home.  Instead of making our annual leaf wreath - click here - we made a tree with fall colored leaves.  I drew some simple leaf shapes on the paper and Jackie cut them out all by herself.  But I made the tree trunk and limbs.

Instead of finishing this all right away, I let her tell me things she was thankful for over a week.  Reason: because she just wasn't willing to focus on it all at once.  She can be quite stubborn.  The first thing she said she was thankful for was presents.  Sigh.  At least she's thankful for them?  And then she redeemed herself my saying "for you!" Even though it took us a long time to finish the craft, I think it turned out more interesting this way because instead of just spouting off things, she would actually have a moment of feeling thankful and express it.  Then I would write it on a leaf.  One time we were in a car driving home from dance class admiring people's Christmas decorations and the beautiful pink sky sunset and the view of our mountains surrounding our valley.  So she told me to write down, snowmen, pink sky sunsets, and sky and mountains.  Then one morning I made blueberry pancakes and she told me to write them down on a leaf because she was thankful for them.   One leaf was really random: puppet shows.  I can't even remember the last one we saw.  But maybe she's thankful for doing her own puppet shows?