One of our November traditions

 I absolutely love fall! I love the crisp mornings (when we can get them in South Texas!); I love college football; I love to cook comfort food like soups and apple muffins;  I love everything about fall--except pumpkin spice anything. But that's a story for another day.

For the last several years, I've seen friends on Facebook using the month of November to post one thing each day that they're grateful for. What a great idea! For some reason, though, I have a really hard time following through for the whole month. I can never figure out if I want to post my thankful thing first thing in the morning or last thing at night or at high noon. So, ironically, instead of feeling grateful throughout the month, I feel stressed and neurotic.  Who needs that?!

We have started a Thankful Tree tradition at home. I feel like I can be more candid at home than I can be on Facebook. Sometimes I want to be thankful for silly things, profound things or semi-private things. I love social media, but it weirds me out sometimes to be grateful for something and then get (or not get) "likes" for it.

The vision for our Thankful Tree is for everyone to add one leaf each day, but we're pretty lax on policing that. (Well, okay, we don't police it at all.) Sometimes I'll add several leaves in one day, sometimes I miss a day. It's no biggie. I want this to be a fun memory and something my family looks forward to. 

Thankful Tree 2013

We started our 2014 Thankful Tree on Saturday. I'm excited to see it transform from a bare trunk to a gorgeous record of our blessings!

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    his love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1