My Soulful Home

home and garden with heart, mind & soul

Thankful at Home Tour – Thanksgiving Tradition

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” Willliam Arthur Ward

Being grateful…that is what Thanksgiving Day means for me.  Not so much pilgrims, turkey or football, but the opportunity to reflect on how blessed we are.

A time to be truly grateful ~ ‘thankful’.  Trying to instill this in our girls we have a Thanksgiving family tradition.  I want to share our tradition with you.

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Our Thanksgiving tradition involves a few simple things: a box, some paper, pencils & a little time.  Time to really think about all the things big or small for which we are thankful.

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This is how it works:

    • We set the table for dinner early in the day;
    • At each place is a note card & a pencil;
    • Each of us writes what we are thankful for on the card;
    • All the cards go in the box.

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Between the entree & dessert we pass around the box, each person reading another’s card.  Some are funny, some are heart warming, some make you think ~ but all make us more thankful than before.

5 Fall Ideas & Projects ~ create a family tradition mysoulfulhome.com

We have been doing this since 2008. Each years “thankfuls” go in envelopes inside the box.  Reading over the past years notes has also become a bit of a tradition.  It is sweet to see the changing handwriting ( and spelling! ) of the girls and recall what was important to them & us each passing year.

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Truth be told, until I was preparing for this post our Thankful Box was a decorated shoe box.  Definitely took the box up a few notches for this tour and glad I did. I even made two!  One for each of my girls when they have families of their own. Here are the before & after photos of our new thankful box.

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I started with a an unfinished wooden box.  The details on the making of our thankful box can be a blog post on their own.  For now I will just mention that I used Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint & love the finish. If it seems you want to know more about the box, I can write a separate post for another day, as you need to get along and visit the other bloggers on the tour!

5 Fall Ideas & Projects ~ create a family tradition mysoulfulhome.com

Speaking of other bloggers, I know one of my thankful cards (we usually have more than one each!) will read “I am thankful for all my new blog friends”.  From my readers to the other bloggers I have come to know over these past 9 months, each of you have brought me joy, laughter, support & encouragement and for all that, I am truly thankful.
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Below is the tour line up.  Visit each blog ~ I know you you will be thankful you did!

** Kelly **

Linking up at Imparting Grace

Join My Soulful Home via Email

Comments

  2. What a beautiful tradition! Love this whole series….so many fun and creative ideas for the thankfulness in all of us!

    Thank you for creating such joy!

    Happy day to you.
    karianne

    • Many thanks Kim…I have had those leaves, a big pile of them, for years. I pick them up at an a estate sale. I have tried to figure out ways to use them so many times. Finally found a good use…but I still have so many! Anybody want a thankful box with leaves?!

  5. Kelly,
    What a beautiful tradition! The years when our family gets together for Thanksgiving we usually do something different each year, but that doesn’t allow us to see that my little niece at 4 was thankful for nail polish! Your daughters have a beautiful start to their family tradition. ~Jeanette

    • Thank you Jeanette! It is sweet to look back & see what was important enough to get on a Thankful card as the years go by. I think we had nail polish once too!

  6. How sweet! I really like this and can in-cooperate it into our Thanksgiving as well. The box is just gorgeous and perfect for the season.
    Thanks for organizing this tour so we can all be a little more thankful.
    Loves.

  8. I LOVE this tradition, Kelly! What a great idea and I adore how the box turned out. The addition of the molding and the leaves and acrons…so pretty! And the MMS color is beautiful!

    I am so thankful that we met through blogging and feel blessed to call you my friend!
    Julie

  9. Oh I so love this tradition..especially the fact that you save these “thankful notes” from year to year…that is so wonderful… I think I will do this starting this year…my mom will be 88 right after Thanksgiving…and it will be so wonderful to look back as you said on what we all wrote…There are about 50 of us…family and extended family…so it should be such fun..

    • What a compliment Shirley! I love that you will try out my family tradition. Let me know how it goes. With 50 guests you will need a HUGE box!

  11. What a beautiful tradition and beautiful keepsake-
    I’d love to see a post on the how-to’s!
    Thanks again! This tour has been such a delight and must have been tons of work for you!
    Cheers
    Christina

  12. This is a wonderful family tradition!! Never too late to start a new tradition. We usually speak about what we’re thankful, but I like the idea of writing it down and reading the cards year after year.
    Mary Alice

    • Oh yes Mary Alice give it a try. You don’t even need the box. Just tie the ‘Thankfuls’ together with a pretty ribbon.

  13. What a very beautiful tradition! Makes Thanksgiving more special. I am loving your blog. I just followed you on Facebook and Pinterest and looking forward to reading more of your posts!

    • Thanks Jhanis! I am so glad I found your blog thru Blogher. How are you faring with the storm? Thanks for your kind words & the follows….will do the same!

  14. This is just beautiful, Kelly. I love the box and the idea behind it. I really REALLY need to start a tradition like this. There have been so many amazing traditions and projects shared on this tour. I am so glad to have been a part of this with you and this amazing group of ladies! xo

  15. Kelly,
    Will you be adding the ‘Thankful Boxes’ to your Etsy shop? That is such a sweet idea for Thanksgiving!

    • Oh how kind of you to think they would be a hit! I hadn’t considered that..but maybe…? Thanks for visiting My Soulful Home. Hope to see u here again soon…

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