{EXPIRED} How to Make a Thankful Tree + LEAF CUT-OUT GIVEAWAY

For those of you that live in the U.S., have you noticed that each year that goes by, Thanksgiving seems to become less and less important?  I know I am not innocent here.  We've had years where we didn't mention a single thing we were thankful for, or perform any other tradition for that matter, on Thanksgiving except for eating a huge meal.

This year, as Thanksgiving approached and I noticed that stores were putting Christmas items out with the Halloween/Fall items, I was determined to do some special things for Thanksgiving.  I think it's a good start!

1.  We separated out some of our Fall and Halloween decorations so that we could actually decorate for both holidays separately.

2.  We're going to have a family movie night and watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving which we got in this pack last year when it was on sale.  (This is not an affiliate link)

3.  I plan on making some Thanksgiving cookies with the kids to take to our neighbors.  I found some sprinkles on clearance that will look very pretty that are specifically fall, not Halloween.

And best of all...

4.  We started a new Thanksgiving tradition this year. We call it our Thankful Tree.  Not only have we been working on being grateful for what we have in general, but we decided to take this opportunity to look for more things to take note of and verbalize each evening as a family. 

Here's how we did it:  First, on butcher paper, we colored a tree trunk and branches.  We taped ours to the refrigerator door, but you could tape it up anywhere, really.  The tree is about 3 feet tall.  Then, the children and I cut out leaves out of different colored paper using my Cricut Cutting Machine.  Next, we talked about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it.  Then we talked about one thing that we were thankful for, we each wrote it down on a leaf, which we then taped onto the tree.  

It has been wonderful to be able to do this as a family each day.  It is a wonderful way to be grateful as a family, to see the good, and to enjoy each other's thoughts.  We were able to include guests one night also, which was a fun way to wrap up our evening with them.  It's a good way to remind the kids (and myself!) to be thankful throughout the day by asking them, "What will you be writing on the Thankful Tree tonight?"

I know it would be tedious to cut out these leaves without a Cricut, and it might be costly to purchase the leaves (if you can find something like it), so I wanted to offer a packet of Leaves and Circles to three readers.  I thought it would be a fun little giveaway!

I will offer the Leaf and Circle packets to the first three readers to contact me.  Feel free to include your name and mailing address in the first email, or you can wait for my response letting you know that you've won.  If you choose to wait for my response to give me your mailing address, please respond quickly with your mailing address so that I can send out your Leaves and Circles as soon as possible.

To enter this giveaway, send me an email with a subject line of Thankful Tree Leaves and Circles at LifeLivedIntentionally [at] gmail [dot] com

And don't worry, I'll mail them out by Thursday so that you will be able to have time to use them until Thanksgiving.  You can use the snail mail time to make your Thankful Tree trunk and branches so it'll be ready when the leaves arrive.

Good Luck!

Disclosure:  Email and mailing addresses will only be used for the purpose of this giveaway and getting your gift to you or letting you know you did not win.  I'm sorry, but this giveaway will be open to U.S. Residents only.  I will do my best to be timely in updating this post once the giveaway has closed, however, the giveaway may be closed, even if it is not marked so.  This giveaway doesn't include the tree trunk, which you will need to make yourself.