Together we Give Thanks

So, I made these felt leaves back when I was nursing newborn Rowan (now 7!) with the intent of using them for our Gratitude Tree. They are cut from felt and hand sewn, except for the button hole, which I did on my machine (I love making button holes!)  However, I never really liked them because we would write what we were thankful for on a slip of paper and then tucked it away where it couldn't be seen.  So after using them one year, we switched to using water colored paper to make leaves with clearly visible notes of gratitude. But, then I had these seventeen sweet pocketed leaves with no use.  I've simply hung them on a cord as a banner the last few years in the house.

We spend the first week of November focusing on All Saints and All Souls Day.  Mostly that means an all low-key All Saints day gathering of some sort and reading through our rather large selection of books on the lives of saints.  After thinking of the Saints, I wanted some readings to draw us to Graditude during the last weeks of November as we end the year.  So I began writing out the passages, prayers and books to share on slips of paper and then I remembered the leaves and was delighted to find that there were seventeen leaves and I had planned for seventeen days (isn't it marvelous when things work out like that!)  I realized that the white slips I had written the readings on wasn't pretty in my leaves so I grabbed some wet-on-wet watercolor paper (I always have some handy) and rewrote the passages.  We hung the leaves above the table and the boys are enjoying taking turns choosing a leaf and finding our reading for the night.  Rowan and Jonah have done the reading thus far, which is so very precious!

Here are the readings I chose:

Notes:
BCP = Book of Common Prayer
                   
The two Thanksgiving books I wanted to make sure all six of us read and made a slip  for are Thanksgiving Story by Alice Danglidesh (we ended up reading it in two parts) and Thank You Sarah! by Laurie Halse Anderson.

And here are the leaves hung above our table on hemp twine: