The Story
It was November 2013; for the first time in my life, I would be spending the Thanksgiving season away from my family and all of my friends. Austen was in college, and we were 25+ hours away from everyone we loved—besides each other.
It was a hard year for a lot of reasons. We had moved across the country in April, shortly after getting married. At the beginning of June, we found out we were expecting our first baby. And by the beginning of July, I was in the ER diagnosed with hyperemesis.. I was so sick I could barely leave the apartment for months, and Austen was spending most of his time at school or work.
At the beginning of November, I desperately needed something fun to help counteract the fact that I was so sad to be missing a holiday with family.
I put a jar on the coffee table, ripped up strips of blank computer paper, and told Austen that we’d each be writing one thing every day that we were thankful for. I thought it would be fun to keep them a secret, so we always made sure to fold them up tight before dropping them into the jar.
Admittedly, “Thankful Things” is not the most creative name, but it’s nostalgic for me, because I spent that whole November asking Austen, “did you write your thankful thing today?” And the name just stuck.
On Thanksgiving Day, after we ate our meal, we dumped all the strips of paper out of the jar and took turns opening and reading them out loud. It’s still one of my favorite memories of our first year of marriage. I cherish those little strips of paper and still have them tucked away for safe keeping.
Now that a couple of our kids are old enough to write, I’m so excited to start the tradition with them.
What You Need…
a container to collect your thankful things
- mason jars or brown paper lunch bags would work great!
strips of paper
- FREE DOWNLOAD (below) with “I’m thankful for…” strips is included in this post
- blank computer paper or colorful construction paper are also great options
free gratitude prompts
- obviously these are optional, but I anticipated my kids looking at me by Day 4 and complaining that they couldn’t think of anything else to write, so I’ve included 30 prompts in the free download below
optional decorative elements
This activity can easily be done without embellishments, but I think it’s always fun and festive to add a little something extra…
- “Thankful Things” labels for your containers (available in the FREE DOWNLOAD)
- washi tape
- ribbon, yarn, or baker’s twine
- stickers
how it works
- PREPARE your containers, strips of paper, and gratitude prompts
- REFLECT & RECORD something you’re thankful for every day and add it to your container (you could have one per person or a large one for the whole family)
- SHARE & CELEBRATE by choosing a day (Thanksgiving, last day of November, etc.) to read them out loud as a family and talk about all the things you’re thankful for!
what’s in the free download?
- “Thankful Things” labels for your containers—6 colors to choose from
- “I’m thankful for…” strips—2 sizes
- Gratitude prompts—list of 30
(*I recommend printing the labels on cardstock if you have it!)
follow along & share
I’m so excited to see what the kids end up writing this year, and I’m hoping the gratitude prompts will help them reflect a little more and think outside the box. I hope you’ll follow along and do Thankful Things with us! If you do, I’d love to see your photos on instagram; be sure to tag me @raisinglacys and use #thankfulthingsadvent if you’re joining us!
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