Family (Hand) Portrait

It's November already..... can you believe it?  I love this time of year as we prepare for the holidays.... this month we'll celebrate Thanksgiving and beginning today, the kids and I will create a grateful tree.  Every day this month we plan to document reasons we're thankful.... my prayer is that this list becomes never-ending and that the kid's hearts will be full of an incredible amount of joy.  More info to come about our grateful tree, probably once it's a little fuller (and prettier). 

Since I'm talking with the kids so much about thankfulness, I thought I'd talk about it here a little too.  One of the things I'm most thankful for is my family and as a reminder of this season of life (including all the fun and all the challenges), I created our family portrait.  Not a traditional portrait, something a little different ....

I saw an amazing idea on Pinterest and altered it just a bit..... looks like my inspiration has stitched hand outlines, whereas mine was drawn in gold marker (same as my dining room walls).

Flickr

I traced each of our hands (the husband, me and our three kids) on black paper to fit my frame.  I alternated between left and rights hands and positioned each hand a little different, some angled to the right, some to the left. 

In the end, I think it almost resembles a coral reef, but looking closely it's all of our hands tied together.  For that, I'm grateful! 

If you look close, I signed and dated the portrait.... memories!

Oooh, and maybe this could be something done every year.... one day all these portraits could be made into a gallery wall throughout a long hallway!  I never tire of gallery walls!