A Thanksgiving Project

indeed it is the most wonderful time of the year. 

a time to be Thankful.

[what a concept!]

and a time to look outside our "daily" at all the blessings....

I wanted to share a project I did last year for Thanksgiving. I have a very "extended" family...

aka lots of add in's/ step-/ half-/ ex-

family members

And last Thanksgiving my darling chef & I hosted Thanksgiving for anyone that is "linked" to us. 

As in

[yes, now it gets confusing]

my brother-in-law's ex-wife from is 1st marriage & her son from her second marriage.

my dad & his wife & their (my half-sisters) along with his (my dad's) out-laws 

aka my moms parents!

cousins 

aunts

uncles 

parents 

great grandparents

in-laws parents and siblings.

it all added up to over 40 people which can get rather confusing!

SO 

for my decoration I made a family tree to help everyone know just how we were all connected

now I say this because not everyone has a "Straight Shooting" Family Tree

you know, the ones with a trunk and two branches on either side going straight up. 

some of us have lots of "off shoots". thats the kind way of saying _______

and everyone who came really liked seeing just how we all were connected & related.

 cut out a bunch of lovely Autumn colored leaves with my Cricut. 

Different sizes & tried to make them colorful but not distracting

 took a board from the hardware store (they called it a specific name I can't remember but basically it is particle board that they get by the plywood & cut for me)

Then I covered it with canvas by pulling it tight and stapling it on the back edges

took plain ol' craft paper

which I bought whole sale in a huge huge roll!

you can get this too, either ebay or find someone that has a florist contact or buys butcher paper. 

it is expensive (like $50 a roll) but lasts forever!

then I took long pieces and twisted it into branches and used pins to keep them in place without pushing them flat

leaves added in some sort of order to help make sense of 40 random people! ha!

Colors were kept together for families or spouses. And since everyone had either a relation to myself or my husband we were the trunk (brown on bottom) and our kids are the green leaves under

Then just go with it!

Have fun & keep that Thanksgiving spirit of family alive even if it doesn't look like a typical branch

;)