Thankful & Blessed

     Thanksgiving has now passed here in the United States. We were able to spend time with wonderful friends and family... and eat lots of turkey haha! Since we have a bigger house now, we are able to host Thanksgiving. Although, our small apartment couldn't stop me from hosting before. But it is nice to have room for everyone without tripping over each other and the dog. Oh and a dishwasher! How I am so thankful for us now having a dishwasher! It's the little things I tell ya!

     One tradition we started a few years ago is our Thankful Tree. I got the idea from Pinterest. Every day, each one of us takes a leaf, writes what we are thankful for on a piece of paper, attaches that to the leaf, then hangs it on the tree. Everyone participates, including guests who come over for dinner during the month of November. Every year, the tree looks different. I create it using sticks from our yard; arranging them in a vase.

     My daughter, who is almost 15, loves doing this. She makes sure we don't forget to do our leaves by reminding us after dinner every night. I love seeing the things that she is most thankful for. They range from the normal teenager things like "YouTube", "Wi-Fi", "Dr. Pepper", etc. to the more heartwarming ones like, "Hugs from Mom", "Time with family", "My home", "Warm food to eat", etc. I am so thankful she is appreciating many things in life that can't be bought.
     We still have two days left of doing our leaves, and because we've had many people come through our home this month, we have almost run out of leaves. While I was worried at first, I took it as a positive thing. That mean, we all have so many things to be thankful for. So many, that we are running out of leaves to write them on. I look at our tree, and it's so full, the leaves are falling off. I can definitely say, my heart is full this Holiday season. We are beyond blessed in so many ways.
     So, what am I thankful for this year? I'm thankful for another year full of blessings. I'm thankful for my Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for my friends and family. I'm thankful for where my journey through genealogy has taken me. And I'm thankful for all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!