Missy expressed that she would like to do a "Giving Thanks" tree in the house for Thanksgiving this year. She said she has always wanted to do one, so this year sounded like a great time to start. We went to a local arts and crafts store to buy foam leafs that can be written on. The idea is that we write the things that we are thankful for on the leaves and then we put them on our tree. The tree consists of a trunk that has been drawn on a large piece of paper and taped to the closet door, and then the leaves are placed on and around the tree. The leaves are in fall colors: red, yellow, orange and brown. For the little ones who are unable to write words, Missy and I will do it for them. For the other kids they can write their own.
We started the tree a little late, so on the first day we had each child write (or tell us) something they are thankful for on two different leaves. Cody's leaves were that he was thankful for a summer trip to Lake Tahoe with Grandma Betty and Papa and also a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. We had recently watch the movie where the kids found the fighting chair scene with Snoopy to be unmatched in the area of humor. They have even been trying to reenact parts of it, resulting in the shutting down of their production quickly. Evey said she was thankful for every colored leaf we had. After much time and a bit of coaching she finally resorted to saying Rubber Ducky and Cody. Her ducky we understand, but her response of Cody was either forced or calculated to take our attention off of a massive attack that she is plotting against him. Trevor said he was thankful for the fish we have in our fish tank, as well as responsibility. He's full of it and just trying to suck up I think. Lucy said she was thankful for our trip to Disneyland at the end of last year and her mommy and I. I will brag for a moment cause she actually said my name first then she said her mommy. Gabby decided to be thankful of hearts as well as her mommy and I. I'm not going to try to gloat on this one because Gabby actually said, "mommy...oh and Andy too." I'm still working through the acceptance of that one.
Then there's Dylan. Mr. analytical on topics of life and thankfulness. I must preface that his answer was given at a time where the week before, his school had just completed "Red Ribbon Week." So when I asked him what he was thankful for he thought quietly for a moment before answering: "That the president said no to drugs." Now I'm not an extremist, I'm not a far left or far right, hell I'm not even a fan of the two party system cause they both seem the same in so many ways. At times I might be considered anti government and at others I might agree with what the government is doing. It depends on the issue and the fact of right versus wrong in most cases for me. Now I'm not here to spout my views on politics (at least not yet), I'm not here to say that I'm perfect, that I don't lie cause I do and I'm not here to bad mouth the establishment or the people sitting on both sides of the congressional aisle. However, I'm not planing on political falsehoods taking over the minds of our children. I'm a realist and after going through the process of being honest and real to the boys about the death of their mother I have vowed to always tell it like it is. Sure I'll sugar coat some things and I will try hard to protect the kids and their innocence, but I want to be honest with them. I started off by asking Dylan what he meant by his statement, maybe he was saying how the president has tried to get tougher on drug issues saying that his administration hopes to reduce youth drug use by 15%. But then Dylan said, "no, for him saying no to drugs." I laughed out loud and leaned in so that I could get Dylan's attention while I spoke to him. I tried to have a straight face as I said, "but Dylan sweetheart, he didn't say no. He admitted to using drugs." Dylan's face ran stoic, he was not in pain but he was trying to process and recover without getting upset. He sat there quiet for a moment before I said, "I'm sorry Dylan, I don't want you to write something that you regret later because it wasn't true even though someone told you it was." Dylan then followed it up with, "well I'm thankful that the president is protecting us and not going to war." I slapped my hand to my forehead and let out a quick, "wow!" Dylan looked at me with a questioning look. Again I leaned in and said, "But Dylan he did get us involved in a war." I wasn't going to go into the current two wars we were fighting that are credited to W. I explained, "Dylan, the president had agreed for our military to be involved in a war in another country, Libya, and that he did not get congressional approval like the law says he should." I didn't see it important to explain the sixty day rule that was noted in the War Powers Resolution, or the thirty day extension to withdraw the military. Nor did I explain the meaning of semantics when the reason why the president did not need congressional approval was because, “U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve U.S. ground troops.” I bit my tongue when I wanted to say that using manned and unmanned aircraft to drop bombs on another country is no longerconsidered an act of war. So I politely said, "Dylan maybe you should word it slightly different." He ran through what he was trying to say and it all came back to the president. Finally I asked, "Dylan what is it about the president that has you wanting to give thanks to him?" He replied, "I don't know, I like the president, I want to write president." It dawned on me that he just in fact might like the word since he feels comfortable writing it. We don't watch much television and we never watch the news, so I'm hard pressed to think he has a deep knowledge of Obama. So he ended up writing that he was thankful for the president making good decisions and saying no to bad stuff. Dylan's second thing he was thankful for was the army. I support that one.
I know some people reading this post might be a little bent by what I wrote. It hurts to have someone say the person they voted for isn't acting in the best manorfor our country and it's laws. And I'm sure there are a few people muttering, "yeah but Bush was worse." I would agree in some areas on that. Truth be told I didn't vote for either of those men. And for those that will question the information, please check out the links below.
Maybe I'm wrong for telling our kids the truth about this one. Maybe I should have tried to shield Dylan from the realities of life. Maybe I made a bad decision. Maybe he just wanted to write the word "president" and I took it to far. Or maybe I didn't.
ARS-
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