Thursday, November 20, 2014

Thanksgiving Tree



The holiday season is kind of the best.  From Halloween to Christmas, I love it ALL!  But Thanksgiving is just so bland that it gets overlooked and overshadowed.  I think the ol' turkey day needs to step it up a little, am I right?  I'm trying to respect the holiday by not exploding Christmas decorations all over my house but it's just so hard!

This year, our family is doing Thanksgiving a little different.  I mean, we always do it different from most people...but this year we're changing things up.  We live on the campus of a Japanese women's university, and we host our Thanksgiving dinner in one of the banquet rooms at the school.  Why?  Well...it's so much better than having it in anyone's home and having to cram people in, and cook in a tiny kitchen.  We have a commercial kitchen at our disposal, and ample space to party and visit.  We have a large family, and on top of that, we host any and all students who would like to come who do not have a host family to spend the holiday with.  What does that mean this year?  Well, we are looking at probably close to 40 people!

As the mother of a child who has multiple life threatening food allergies, the thought of going to a food-centered party is enough to give me palpitations.  But this year?  We're making all of the food there, in the kitchen, and it's going to all be "Nik-safe", as we say in our house.  It's going to be traditional Thanksgiving food, nothing foofy, but all safe.  Can we pull it off?  I think we can.  And if we do, I plan to put together a recipe book to share if anyone is interested!

Enough about the food.  That's not my angle for this post.  How do you bring together a gathering of 40 people and make it feel like an intimate family holiday?  Games, activities, social interaction, and hey, it's Thanksgiving, a movie or football too.  But let's remember the reason for the holiday, to be thankful for all of our many, countless blessings.  I mean, can you even count how many times every day you're blessed??  Blessings don't always come in the form of good things, either.  Sometimes a painful event spurred on something bigger, and we should be thankful for that too!  So, while our family (and plentiful host daughters) are breaking bread, we will be starting a new tradition.  Enter the Thanksgiving Tree.  It's simple, and it's not my original idea (I was inspired by the AMAZING Ann Voskamp here), but it's so good that we are bringing it in this year!   You can make your tree, or like me, use fallen tree branches from the yard.  I grabbed some interesting looking branches (they are HUGE), and painted them with gold.  I didn't cover them completely in gold, just accented them.  Then cut out (by hand) 50 leaves of varying shapes and sizes, painted them partially gold (and doodled a little in sharpie), then punched holes with the hole puncher and added paper clips.  I started out with cute ribbons, but realized there will be so many people that it couldn't work with ribbons, the leaves would be so bunched up.  The paperclip hooks should give each leaf a little space.  After all of that was done, I bound the branches and stuffed them into an extra big mason jar and just keep hoping that it doesn't tip over!  I'm going to have to find something to give it some weight but let it still look nice.  I put a slip of paper inside that reads "I am thankful for", to bring it together, and viola!  A really cheap DIY for a fun holiday activity that will hopefully become a tradition. 








We are hoping people will fill that tree up, and then we will read aloud the many things our family is thankful for later in the evening as everyone enjoys their pumpkin pie.  What do you think?  I'll post an update after Thanksgiving, with the tree full, and let you know how it went.  If you decide to make one, will you please share it too?  Thanks friends!


No comments:

Post a Comment