Thanksgiving Countdown

Gratitude is HUGE. Its one of the many things I'm a big stickler on with my boys.

As a family we've been discussing the upcoming holidays and I began noticing the quick jump from Halloween to Christmas. I kept saying "and Thanksgiving". Brady caught on quick and asked why I kept saying it. I tried to explain to him why thanksgiving was important.

While historically its a big deal and it is an important event, I wanted them to realize that personally it should be just as important. We should be thankful all the time but life is great at throwing us distractions and its often forgotten completely. So I decided to make this Thanksgiving count. I wanted to teach my family how to be a little more "thankful". Don't get me wrong they are great in public with manners, saying Thank You's, etc but it's more than that. I wanted them to realize how blessed they truly are.

I made them a little Thanksgiving Countdown. In a glass jar there are cards, each card has something they are/should be thankful for. For example: "I am thankful for... Our Neighbors" and then below it tells them a way to express that gratitude, "do something nice for them ie rake their leaves, write them a note, make them a plate of cookies, get their newspaper, etc.". Each card has something different and the topics range from fun like our car, food or music, or service minded, or family minded, personal possessions, body minded (hands, eyes, ears, etc), gospel centered, cooking/baking fun, etc. So for the next 25 days we will pick a card and do whatever the card suggests.

I think the boys will have fun, it will make us closer as a family, give us fun and mostly free things to do together and they will learn that being Thankful is easy to do and just as important.